JOHN PIPER, RICK WARREN & FOSTER-WILLIARDISM

Ken Silva of Apprising Ministries reports:

Quote:

Do two walk together, unless they have agreed to meet?” (Amos 3:3)

The Lord Will Always See Through Anyone’s Attempt At ”File Cabinet Orthodoxy”

As I said in previous AM posts such as Acts 29 Network And Reformed Counter Reformation Spirituality?and Acts 29 Pastor Matt Chandler On Being A Reformed Charismatic, in my estimation, there’s very good reason for concern as these people are rapidly growing in popularity, and in influence within the younger sector of the Reformed Camp; blessed as they are by Dr. John Piper, who’s seen by some as a “pioneer” of this New Calvinism.[1]

So now you have the backdrop as to why I believe it’s become necessary to begin looking more closely at what appears to be a form of postmodern Calvinism in that camp; one which professes Reformation theology while, at the same time, also embracing corrupt Counter Reformation spirituality. It just so happens that today I was again sent a link to a book review by Dr. Gary Gilley, pastor of Southern View Chapel, where he looks at Dr. Piper’s When I Don’t Desire God.
In his review Dr. Gilley brings out his own concerns with some of the more curious teaching of Dr. John Piper:

Finally, Piper quotes favorably from a very disturbing stable of authors: Dietrich Bonhoeffer (popular liberal theologian, who, by the way, was executed not for his faith in Christ, but for his part in an assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler) (p. 90), Dallas Willard (leader in the unbiblical spiritual formation movement) (p. 119), G.K. Chesterton (Roman Catholic author) (p. 196), and Richard Foster (father and main promoter of the infiltration of Roman Catholic mysticism into evangelical circles) (pp. 192-193). He also speaks twice of the “dark night of the soul” which comes from counter-reformation Catholic mystic St. John of the Cross (pp. 217, 229).

Most disturbing is Foster’s quote calling for “new prophets to arise in our day” to which Piper responds, “And when they arise, one way that we fight for joy in God is to read what they write” (p. 193). After authoring a book which majors on pointing us to the Bible in our fight for joy, it is disconcerting to now read of an encouragement to read the words of modern prophets; and coming from Foster’s perspective and Piper’s theology on prophets, they are both referring to extrabiblical revelation through present-day prophets). (Online source)

Most disturbing is right; you know e.g. from my articles such as Steve Gladen, Saddleback Church Small Groups, And Quaker Mystic Spirituality and Saddleback Church, Rick Warren, And Spiritual Disciplinesthat the Emerging Church would end up being a Trojan Horse; one which squishy evanjellyfish leaders would bring right into their own camp, even though it’s the vehicle from which this spurious CSM—a romanticized version of the Counter Reformation (hello!) spirituality of the apostate Roman Catholic Church—would be unloaded. You should know that the EC has been pawning off this spurious CSM for years as so-called Spiritual Formation.

I’ve also explained to you it happens to be an incontrovertible fact that the main purveyors of CSM would be the Living Spiritual Teacher and Quaker mystic Richard Foster, along with Southern Baptist ministerDallas Willard; whom many people don’t seem to realize is quite literally Foster’s spiritual twin and teaches, and practices, the exact same things. You may recall that I’ve also told you, in no uncertain terms, it’s well past time for evangelical leaders to begin recognizing the inclusive, and increasingly universal, fruit of this disgusting spiritual skubalon of a vertible cult of Foster-Willardism.

Yet as we look in the library of Bethlehem Baptist Church where John Piper is pastor we find Richard Foster, Prayer Finding the Heart’s True Home...

In his The Dangers of Spiritual Formation and Spiritual Disciplines, a thorough, and Biblical, dismantling of Willard’s twisting of God’s Word in the book above, Christian apologist Bob DeWaay carefully shows us that on one hand Dallas Willard admits these so-called spiritual disciplines are not taught in the Bible, but then on the other, he does try to teach Foster-Willardism’s quasi-Quaker and Roman Catholic mysticism is actually found in Matthew 11:29-30; where Jesus says to us — “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Obviously, on the face of this text we don’t see any semi-ascetic so-called spiritual disciplines; Willard instead imports them into this passage of the Bible.

End quote.

For the entire article, which includes Bethlehem Baptist Church's webpages which show them offering New Age Contemplative authors, along with more information and footnotes go here.

For information I have written about regarding John Piper, go here.