Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Evening Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/ev/ev20060716.htm

PROFITABLY LEARNING FROM THE ERRORS OF THE CULTS
Part X: Profitably Learning From The Errors Of Contemporary "Evangelical Experientialism"
(Deuteronomy 13:1-4; Isaiah 8:19-20; 2 Timothy 3:13-17)
  1. Introduction
    1. One may ask what "Evangelical Experientialism" is, and why we would term some Evangelicals as cultic!
    2. Well, "Evangelical Experientialism" has led many believers to heed dangerous spirit practices and others to counter even basic Christian doctrines (John H. Armstrong, gen. ed., The Coming Evangelical Crisis , p. 32-39), so we do well to understand this challenge for our edification (as follows):
  2. Profitably Learning From The Errors Of Contemporary "Evangelical Experientialism".
    1. "Evangelical Experientialism," the conviction of many Evangelicals that experience is the final authority of spiritual truth, has led some of them to heed dangerous spirit practices and led others into cultic error:
      1. "Evangelical Experientialism" has led many Evangelicals to heed dangerous spirit practices:
        1. In The Healing Epidemic, Pastor Peter Masters of the Metropolitan Tabernacle in London claimed that occult healing built the world's largest church, The Biblical Evangelist, v. 23, no. 4, 4/1/89.
        2. He read many books on charismatics and found many of them were influenced by Paul Yonggi Cho, Pastor of the Full Gospel Central Church in Seoul, Korea, the world's largest church. (Ibid.)
        3. Well, Pastor Cho's book, The Fourth Dimension, explains his ministry was changed when he saw Buddhist monks in Korea had more success healing people than did Pentecostal churches, that many more were healed by yoga meditation and attending Soka Gakkai, a Japanese Buddhist sect, (Ibid.)
        4. Pastor Cho concluded that God wanted him to visualize what he wanted achieved like the Buddhist and yoga practitioners did if he wanted to gain their miraculous results, Ibid. If the Soka Gakkai could gain Satan's power to heal by visualization, Christians should apply visualization to tap into God's spiritual power to achieve greater healing results than the Soka Gakkai did from Satan, Ibid.!
        5. Hence, Dave Hunt reports "numerous" Evangelical churches now regularly hold "'Christian yoga'" classes in the "'contemplative movement'" ("Spirits of the Lie," The Berean Call, p. 1, Nov. 2003).
        6. However, this is a troubling development: "David Pursglove, therapist and transpersonal counselor for decades, warns that those involved in Eastern meditation can encounter 'Frightening ESP and other parapsychological occurrences . . . out-of-body experiences . . . [encounters] with death and subsequent rebirth . . . awakening of the serpent power (Kundalini) . . . violent shaking and twisting . . .'" (Dave Hunt, "The Kundalinia Connection: Evangelicals Embrace Energy of the Serpent," excerpts from the book, Yoga and the Body of Christ, cited in The Berean Call, July 2006, p. 8).
      2. "Evangelical Experientialism" has even led some Evangelicals into the cultic errors that God does not send people to hell, the cross was not necessary and that Scripture is not objectively true since Christians should sometimes "go . . . against the text," Ibid., Armstrong, p. 36-39!
    2. Scripture reveals "Evangelical Experientialism" errs in not using written Scripture as its final authority:
      1. Moses taught that even clearly miraculous experience was to be subject to written Scripture, Deut. 13:1-4. This suggests that some miracle workers use demonic power, a fact Matthew 7:22-23 reveals!
      2. So, in the context of those who sought spirit mediums versus written Scripture for advice, Isaiah wrote that unless they sought written Scripture , they had no insight! (Ryr. St. Bib., KJV, ftn. to 8:20)
      3. For this reason, Paul urged Timothy to counter apostasy by making written Scripture his final authority:
        1. Timothy was to continue adhering to the spiritual truths (1) he had learned and (2) become assured were God's truths, (3) recalling the quality lives of those who had taught them to him, 2 Tim. 3:14.
        2. Now, such sources of truth are still experiential and hence fallible: one's mind can fool him and even good teachers can still go into error as 2 Timothy 3:13 clearly implies!
        3. Thus, of ultimate importance, Paul told Timothy to focus upon and to proclaim written Scripture, the unchanging, God-inspired text that supplies all we need for every good work, 2 Tim. 3:15-17!
        4. For this reason, and in view of his accountability to Christ Who would judge the living and the dead by it, Timothy was to proclaim written Scripture in countering apostasy, 2 Timothy 4:3-5.
Lesson: "Evangelical Experientialism" actually opens the door for dangerous syncretism and cultism.

Application: May we then hold to Scripture alone as our final authority for faith and practice!