Jesus had a singular command? Only one? Yes this might the most important commandment upon which everything else hinges but the irony is that NRCC misses the reason why! If you love God you will do what He says! But NRCC and the purpose driven churches today share this bifurcated theology. They claim to be simply adhering to the greatest commandment but they are not. No one can claim to love God and disobey Him. That is the point they are missing. The code-speak of loving others gets stretched to not offend others, which is contrary to the Gospel entirely! We saw this play out recently when Carl Lentz of Hillsong NYC told Oprah that you did not need to be a Christian to have a relationship with God. This sloppy agape theology is rampant throughout purpose driven churches today.
Belief Number Three -- We Believe in Spirit.
Note the absence of the word "the." We believe in spirit is totally different than believing in THE Spirit. I want to take particular note of two things mentioned for this belief. The first is:
"We believe the indwelling Spirit awakens ordinary people to live divine lives in tangible, perceptible ways." - NRCC
So the Spirit of the living God which is our seal and deposit for our future in heaven is reduced to awakening people? How pathetic. Note the emphasis on perceptible and tangible ways. Beloved these are the doctrines of demons the Bible warns us about. Living divine lives is directly seen in the theologies of the Word Faith movement who believe we become "little gods." Joel Osteen constantly preaches that we have the same power of creation on our words that God has. The late Myles Munroe and Creflo Dollar have preached God needs our permission to operate in the earth. They only preach about tangible and perceptible ways. Notice the thread here. Jesus overcame the grave so we might discover a new way to live THIS life. The Holy Spirit now brings divinity into THIS life. Here is the second example from this belief:
"We listen carefully for the Spirit's inner voice and thread our way forward into deeper wisdom, insight, redemption, and wholeness." -- NRCC
How absurdly unbiblical. How utterly carnal. Let's deal with these one at a time. First of all, you are made whole at salvation. There is no "deeper wholeness"; whatever that is supposed to mean. Likewise, there is no "deeper redemption" than when Jesus Christ redeems us. This is esoteric gobbledygook. Deeper carnal insight and wisdom are expressly what we ought to not seek out according to Scripture. Our hearts are desperately wicked and deceitful above everything else. Only Scripture is to be our guide. We do not listen for the "inner voice" because the Spirit Himself leads us into all truth contained within the Word of God. But this use of the inner voice theology is not uncommon within the purpose driven network. It is what is taught in most Pentecostal churches today. That we have to lose ourselves in worship or prayer to attain some deeper level of spirituality that will then allow us to see what the Spirit is saying to us. New worship is always about going deeper into one body of water or another. Most false prophets work within this paradigm using clairvoyance to project things they claim God is showing them. Many false pastors claim direct revelation from God for their heretical sermons as well. Congregants each week are being taught to listen to the still small voice inside of them. To tap into the spirit within them. It is completely pagan and the reality is we are tapping into our feelings instead of our faith. If you want to know if something you are doing or want to do is part of the will of God -- read your Bible!
Belief Number Four -- We believe in the Ancient Spiritual Disciplines.
The what? That's right. The ancient spiritual disciplines. You know; the ones that are nowhere in the Bible! Instead, NRCC has set up four segments of "spiritual disciplines," which come from their wickedly deceptive hearts and not Scripture. These include: communal practices, contemplative practices, learning practices and service practices. Subtopics in these include: self-awareness and self-disclosure, meditation and centering prayer, solitude/silence, spiritual reading, and enneagram (personality testing). It sounds like Oprah is the lead pastor here! These are all new age teachings that run contrary to the Bible. Centering prayer and contemplative practices are rampant at IHOP and within the NAR. They are designed to empty the mind to experience God. Except God never instructed us to empty our mind. We are in fact supposed to fill our mind with His Word and be transformed through it. The Bible expressly teaches that there are other spirits beloved. I am reminded of the testimony of Kim-Walker Smith from the heretical worship outfit known as Jesus Culture, out of Bethel Church. These are the teachings she was trained under. So she testifies that she had a "waking visitation" where Jesus whisked her away to the throne room to meet the Father face to face. She asked him what He was thinking when He created her and God in His answer ripped out a piece of His own heart to mold a miniature Kim Walker-Smith. He then set the miniature in a music box and would clap giddily when He opened it and she danced and worshipped Him. Now, we know this could not have been God. How? Because the Bible teaches us that God has said no man can see Him and live! Thus through her contemplative and meditative efforts, she was visited and entertained by demons. Angels of light the Bible calls them and she could not tell the difference. Period. The Bible says to meditate on the Word of God. Not empty your mind so the devil can fill it. One last thing from this section is the claim from NRCC that our "souls prosper when we study both ancient and contemporary wisdom." The Bible expressly warns about the wisdom of man beloved. Yet what do we see running throughout the church today? Pastors who rely more upon human wisdom than the Word. Worship music based more upon wisdom than Scripture. This is the path the church is on.
Belief Number Five -- We Believe Sin is Not That Big a Deal.
Boom. Mic drop. As much as we should have seen this coming to actually see a church admit this is positively frightening. Beloved, this is where we are heading as a church. Sin is treated as if it is not a big deal so it was only a matter of time before they started owning it. I will conclude with their own words, from NRCC:
"Compared to the vastness of God's grace and forgiveness, sin is just not that big of a deal. Consequently, at NCRR, we're not too focused on one another's sin. We don't spend much energy trying to keep one another on the straight and narrow. Rather we encourage one another to listen to the Indwelling Spirit and let God move us. Do that and sin will take care of itself."
If sin could take care of itself we would not need a Savior. Let me try and explain the inherent danger of practices such as these and th e experiential Christianity being promulgated today. The Holy Spirit is not some meek secret voice hidden away inside of us. When we seek that inner voice we are really searching our feelings, which means we are trusting our hearts, which are wickedly deceptive according to the Bible. The Holy Spirit however leads us into all truth as the key verse teaches us. Not all truth within us because there is none. He leads us into all truth contained in the Word of God beloved. Sin will not "take care of itself." It will continue to wreak havoc and destroy lives until repented of and forgiven for. That of course requires the Gospel, which the church today is moving rapidly away from. NRCC is merely ahead of the very dangerous curve we find ourselves on.
Reverend Anthony Wade -- November 5, 2016
