Barnabas Piper, one of John Piper's sons, who was divorced by his wife at the end of last year (it sounds like it was an unbiblical one and it has come up first in January when he announced it and then again last week in a "Christianity Today" interview), has written a post applauding Brennan Manning's book "Ragamuffin Gospel". Manning is a false teacher and was a key factor in the anti-biblical Emergent Church Movement (so really, B Piper is behind the curve).
He offers 50 of the best quotes, but starts by saying:
I recently read Brennan Manning’s classic work on God’s profound love and grace, The Ragamuffin Gospel. I’d known of the book for years, but it took dozens of recommendations before I bought and read it. Part of me wished I had done so earlier and part of me is grateful I encountered this beautiful book when I did. It is rare or me to read a book that makes me love Jesus and feel loved by Jesus more. This one did, page after page, relentlessly. It is magnificent in its simplicity and depth and honesty and gratefulness and worship. If you have not, please read it. Here are a election of the best quotes from it.
End quote.
Manning is heavily into gnosticism, specifically Contemplative Spirituality and prayer, which is grounded in the Eastern mysticism of the Roman Catholic Desert monks. Worse, Manning denies the penal substituionary death of Christ and thus along with that, the absolute, inflexible justice of God. But there's more.
As Lighthouse Trails Research says:
In Manning’s more recent book, Above All, he says: “[T]he god who exacts the last drop of blood from his Son so that his just anger, evoked by sin, may be appeased, is not the God revealed by and in Jesus Christ. And if he is not the God of Jesus, he does not exist (p. 58).” Manning actually took this idea, nearly word for word, from William Shannon, author of Silence of Fire. But Manning has made a habit of quoting Shannon. Ray Yungen elaborates:
[W]hen Manning quotes from (and even recommends in one interview) William Shannon’s book, Silence on Fire, one would expect to find a common ground somewhere between the two of them. Yet Silence on Fire contains nothing that would inspire a true evangelical. In fact, it is filled with universalist statements that would offend anyone with doctrinally-sound evangelical sensibilities. One portion states, “[T]here is a oneness in God that unites all women and men … The goal of all true spirituality is to achieve an awareness of our oneness with God and with all of God’s creation.”
Alan Jones, whom Manning also repeatedly quotes, calls the doctrine of the Cross a vile doctrine. This rejection of the biblical view of the Cross by Jones and Shannon is similar to that of Brian McLaren who says the doctrine of the Cross and Hell are “false advertising for God.”
End quote.
A more anti-doctrines of grace (TULIP and the 5 Solas) you can't find. Mysticism is at the heart, anti-Scripture alone. It does find common ground with the unholy Charismatic movement, though. And that would make sense, considering John Piper's charismaticism himself. When one commits the sin of Adam and Eve by not trusting in God's character and Word but rather, goes outside of His Word to find "knowledge", that is to say, when Scripture isn't enough, people will absolutely fall into error and in many cases, grievous error. Charismaticism (which John Piper holds to) denies the sole sufficiency of Scripture and instead looks to experiences and feelings as if those indicate truth or spirituality. It is nothing less than gnosticism.
As Ken Silva said:
As yet another example of the grave danger of spiritual deception for those who persist in CSM’s rebellion against the final authority of God’s Word in favor of personal, highly subjective “experience,” in Reflections for Ragamuffins (RfR) by Brennan Manning the daily devotion for May 8 is based on his lovely lament concerning Isaiah 53. O but of course, first using a methodology so often employed by the Emergent Church, he begins by taking a shot at those of us who adhere to Sola Scriptura as he whines about “how difficult it is to receive anyone who has all the answers.”
End quote.
Silva goes on to say:
This next part you really have to read for yourself to believe just how exactly backward Manning’s semi-pelagian ear-tickling centered on the self message actually is:
So Jesus comes in the way of weakness, giving us the chance to love him and making us feel that we have something to give him. Isaiah prophesied that he would be “like a lamb led to the slaughter or a sheep before the shearers”(53:7 NAB). Jesus, who understands the human heart, allowed the image of a dumb, helpless animal to be applied to himself. (129)
Because the level of Biblical discernment today is so low this is the kind of trite, pious-sounding, and people-pleasing pabulum that has even begun affecting mainstream evangelicalism in the Chuck Swindolls, the David Jeremiahs, and the Charles Stanleys (the SBC is fine shape). Popular evangelicals like Max Lucado and Philip Yancey long ago succumbed. Lucado writes of Manning that “he does a masterful job of blowing the dust off shop-worn theology” [means: the stuff I don’t like] and Yancey says, “I consider Brennan Manning my spiritual director in the school of grace.” And SBC minister Dallas Willard, who is the Spiritual Formation friend of the aforementioned Foster, tells us that Manning “throws firebrands into your soul and makes you wonder why you are not living stripped, standing in the arctic ‘Sonshine’ of God’s love” (back cover).
O please; it becomes obvious that these men are reading the Bible and then still thinking only as men think. Yes, Jesus came to give man the chance to love Him alright but the Bible is painfully clear in that He was roundly rejected. Christ came “making us feel that we have something to give him”? And what pray tell would we give to Him Mr. Manning; filthy rags? You should have read a little further on in Isaiah — All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags (64:6). The Bible teaches very clearly that mankind was helpless on his own to do anything to please God — when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly (Romans 5:6).
The terrible truth is that we have absolutely nothing at all to give God that is even remotely worthy of His incredible gift. Here’s the issue, Manning is mangling the metphor of Isaiah 53 and taking it well beyond its intended meaning. Uh-oh; I just inferred that I know what this passage of Scripture means. What a serious faux pas I have commited because my Emergent “brothers” would tell me I simply can’t know for sure what Isaiah 53 means. Because you see, those who say to us it’s humble to admit we don’t know for sure are in turn *ahem* sure that they themselves in fact know I’m wrong to be…um, sure. Ah Alice, what color is the sky out there in Wonderland? But as has been pointed out well elsewhere:
Metaphors are often used in Scripture to help the reader understand an abstract concept that might otherwise be lost or to emphasize a particular element. It is dangerous, if not completely off-base, to motivate a position using an element of a metaphor that is not supported or called out by the context. Jesus is the Lamb of God, like a sheep lead to the slaughter… The imagery is that of a blameless sacrifice who willingly, and without protest (see Isa. 5:5), takes upon Himself the wrath of a Just and Holy God in our place.The context simply does not support the proposition that Jesus wants to be viewed as a “dumb, helpless animal” or did so for the purpose of giving us a “chance to love him.” Manning uses a novel and unsupported interpretation of the metaphor to develop a point he wants the reader to accept. In addition, Manning is a master at building an ambiguous straw man argument on the basis of feelings the reader might have, especially those of inadequacy. The fact that the reader can identify or relate to a particular story becomes the support for the proposition espoused. The methodology appeals to the reader’s experience rather than the truth contained in God’s Word.
Sola Scriptura; Sola Christus!
But therein lies the very grave spiritual danger in following these pied pipers of the postevangelical and Emergent Church rebellion against the authority of the Bible. These fools (look it up in the Bible) have elevated their own corrupt and fallen human reasoning above the text of the Word of God. In simpler terms, these people with their neo-Gnostic mysticism-lite are interpreting the text of Scripture by how they “feel” about it rather than going by what the text clearly says. And it’s a hallmark of the neo-orthodox approach to the Bible. Ever notice how many Emerging Church leaders praise Karl Barth?
End quote.
Read the entire article here.
How is it that Barnabas Piper finds such a heretic like Manning leading him to love Jesus more? The answer is that he's not loving the biblical Jesus. He's not even hearing His voice.
Read the entire article here.
How is it that Barnabas Piper finds such a heretic like Manning leading him to love Jesus more? The answer is that he's not loving the biblical Jesus. He's not even hearing His voice.
2Jn 1:9 Anyone who goes too far and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God; the one who abides in the teaching, he has both the Father and the Son.
2Jn 1:10 If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house, and do not give him a greeting;
2Jn 1:11 for the one who gives him a greeting participates in his evil deeds.
Joh 10:4 "When he puts forth all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice.
Joh 10:5 "A stranger they simply will not follow, but will flee from him, because they do not know the voice of strangers."
Joh 10:14 "I am the good shepherd, and I know My own and My own know Me
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