In the Name of Purpose: Sacrificing Truth on the Altar of Unity

428 Pages·2007·2.19 MB·English

In the Name
of
Purpose
Sacrificing Truth on the Altar of Unity
Tamara Hartzell
In the Name of Purpose: Sacrificing Truth on the Altar of
Unity
Copyright © 2006 by Tamara Hartzell
All rights reserved. This e-book may be freely copied and distributed
provided that it is done so without any alterations and for non-commercial
use only.
E-mail your questions to [email protected].
All Scripture quotations are taken from the Authorized King James Bible.
This book is gratefully dedicated to my parents
for raising me in a church that grounded me in
the truth and taught me to stand up for the truth.
Acknowledgments
To my beloved husband, for your faithful love, prayers, and tremen-
dous support undergirding this long and burdensome task I give you
my deepest love and gratitude.
To all who have supported me in various ways throughout and have
made this work possible, thank you from the bottom of my heart.
To my precious Lord, absolutely nothing compares to the priceless
privilege of knowing You, in daily life and for all eternity. Words are
inadequate in expressing my deep gratitude for all that You are and
all that You do. You are life’s greatest Treasure.
If I gained the world, but lost the Savior,
Would my gain be worth the life-long strife?
Are all earthly pleasures worth comparing
For a moment with a Christ-filled life?…
O the joy of having all in Jesus!
What a balm the broken heart to heal!
Ne’er a sin so great, but He’ll forgive it,
Nor a sorrow that He does not feel!
If I have but Jesus, only Jesus,
Nothing else in all the world beside—
O then ev’rything is mine in Jesus;
For my needs and more He will provide.
—Anna Ölander, 19041
Contents
Note to the Reader. .............................................. 9
Introduction
(cid:103) Neutralizing Christianity. ..................................... 13
Part 1 (cid:103) The Purpose-Driven “Groundbreaking Manifesto” and
“Blueprint”
1. Which Light Are We Following?................................ 23
(cid:103) Who Is Worthy of Praise and Glory?......................... 23
(cid:103) The Holy Scriptures: God’s All-Sufficient Light unto Our
Path. ..................................................... 24
(cid:103) Man’s “Light” Says Doctrinal Views Aren’t an Issue in God’s
“Final Exam”............................................... 30
2. Humanism Achieves Immense Popularity. ...................... 35
(cid:103) Many Driven into the Alluring “Light” of the Broad Way. ..... 35
Part 2 (cid:103) The Purpose-Driven “Spiritual Journey”: It’s “Not about
You,” or Is It?
3. The Bible Is Clear. ............................................ 41
(cid:103) God Takes 40 Days to Prepare People for His Purposes?....... 41
(cid:103) God’s Purposes are Man-centered?. ......................... 47
4. Purpose #1: You Were Planned for God’s Pleasure. ............. 49
(cid:103) Worship That Is about You Is Not Worship of God. .......... 49
(cid:103) Offering the Strange Fire of Profane Music Is Not Worship
of God. ................................................... 53
(cid:103) “The Foolishness of Preaching”.............................. 60
5. Purpose #2: You Were Formed for God’s Family................. 67
(cid:103) “The Local Church Is the Body of Christ”..................... 67
(cid:103) Is it Through the Blood of Our Redeemer Jesus Christ or the
Lifeblood of a Local Church That We Have Spiritual Life?....... 72
6. Purpose #3: You Were Created to Become Like Christ. .......... 77
(cid:103) Which Is It, to Be like Christ or to Be like You?. .............. 77
(cid:103) The Fruit of the Spirit, or the Fruit of Community?............ 78
(cid:103) The Fruit of the Spirit, or the Fruit of Satan’s Temptations?.... 79
(cid:103) Instant Sainthood Through the Power of God vs Spiritual
Formation Through Spiritual Disciplines...................... 82
7. Purpose #4: You Were Shaped for Serving God.................. 89
(cid:103) Serve God According to Who He Is, Not According to Who
You Are. .................................................. 89
(cid:103) Finding Healing Through Our Wounds or Healing Through
Christ’s Wounds?........................................... 99
(cid:103) Airing Our Dirty Laundry Is Not Our Most Effective and
Powerful Ministry in Serving God........................... 101
8. Purpose #5: You Were Made for a Mission..................... 103
(cid:103) Was Christ’s Mission on Earth to Atone for Our Sins or to
“Introduce” People to God So They Can Become His
Friends?. ................................................. 103
(cid:103) Introducing People to Which God?.......................... 104
(cid:103) Introducing People to God by Telling Them Mostly about
You?. .................................................... 106
(cid:103) “Mission Accomplished!”.................................. 111
Part 3 (cid:103) Counting All Things but Loss for the Knowledge of
Purpose
9. “There Is One Thing You Could Do Greater than Share Jesus
Christ with Somebody”....................................... 117
(cid:103) Starting a Purpose-Driven Church. ......................... 117
(cid:103) Sharing the Message of Purpose with the World............. 119
(cid:103) The True Purpose of Life Is “Becoming One with That
Passive Spark of Divinity Longing for Actuality”?............. 123
10. Purpose-Driven “No Matter What it Costs”.................... 135
(cid:103) Sacrificing Righteousness and Holiness...................... 135
(cid:103) Sacrificing the Truth of the Faith. ........................... 136
(cid:103) Sacrificing the Mind of Christ............................... 142
Part 4 (cid:103) Leading the Masses into a Spiritual Awakening or a Unity
of Spiritual Blindness?
11. “America’s Most Influential Spiritual Leader”................... 151
(cid:103) “What in the World Are Our Pastors and Church Leaders
Teaching Their Congregations?”. ........................... 151
(cid:103) “Secular America’s Favorite Evangelical Christian”. .......... 156
(cid:103) “Ministering to Hurting People [Is] More Important than
Maintaining Purity”. ...................................... 164
12. The New Reformation: “A Whole New Paradigm Between Faith
Communities”............................................... 169
(cid:103) Turning the First Reformation Upside Down................. 169
(cid:103) Interfaith “Spiritual Care” -- “Whatever it Takes!”. .......... 181
13. “Except the LORD Build the House, They Labour in Vain That
Build it”..................................................... 195
(cid:103) The Kingdom of God Is the Narrow Way.................... 195
(cid:103) Is Rick Warren’s P.E.A.C.E. Plan the Kingdom of God?........ 197
(cid:103) Saving Bodies at the Expense of Souls -- A Revolution for
Global Christianity. ....................................... 203
Part 5 (cid:103) The Fulfillment of PEACE on Earth in the Name of
Purpose
14. Declaring the End from the Beginning.......................... 211
(cid:103) “The Global Peace Plan IS GOING TO HAPPEN”. ............ 211
(cid:103) God’s Global Judgment Precedes God’s Global Peace.......... 217
15. The Angel of Light’s “Plan” for World Peace.................... 225
(cid:103) An Interfaith Kingdom of World Servers Working Together
as ONE................................................... 225
16. “The Power of ONE”. ........................................ 237
(cid:103) “Together as ONE We Can Change the World”.............. 237
(cid:103) The U.N.’s Goals: Uniting the World as ONE................ 238
(cid:103) Interfaith “Bread for the World” Feeds the Hungry........... 241
(cid:103) “Unity Comes from Purpose, Not from Anything Else”....... 248
Part 6 (cid:103) “Then There Will Emerge the Universal Religion, the One
Church, and That Unified Though Not Uniform Approach to God”
17. “One Truth,” Many Theologies................................ 255
(cid:103) “A Portion of Truth, Great or Small, Is Found in Every
Religious and Philosophical System”........................ 255
18. “One God,” Many Paths...................................... 259
(cid:103) “The Religions are the Tributaries of One Great River”........ 259
(cid:103) Uniting All Gods into ONE Through Interfaith Prayer
Services. ................................................. 266
19. “One Church,” Many Expressions. ............................ 273
(cid:103) “The Religion of the Future”. .............................. 273
(cid:103) The Body of Christ Transcends the Borders of the Faith of
Christianity?.............................................. 274
(cid:103) Fundamentalism: An Enemy of the Universal Religion........ 278
(cid:103) Finding One’s Own Self-Empowering Religious Expression.... 288
20. “One Divine Life,” Many ‘Little Christs’........................ 293
(cid:103) “That Which Will Eventually Reorganize Our Human Life
Is the Presence in the World of Those Who Know Christ
as Their Example, and Recognize That They Possess the
Same Divine Life”. ........................................ 293
(cid:103) “A Leadership Model That Can Transform Your Life”. ........ 295
(cid:103) Giving Heed to “the Fundamental Doctrines of the Ageless
Wisdom”................................................. 301
Part 7 (cid:103) “The Last Gasp of Christendom”
21. Letting the Old Faith Crumble Away........................... 317
(cid:103) The Spiritual Transformation of Today’s Christianity. ........ 317
22. “A Radically Different Kind of Church” for “the New Age”....... 325
(cid:103) “A Whole New Species of Church Is Emerging”.............. 325
(cid:103) “Even the Term ‘Christ’ Carries Little Meaning”.............. 329
(cid:103) “The Point of Interfaith Conversation Is Not to Decide
Which Religious Propositions Are Right or Wrong”.......... 335
(cid:103) “The Most Important Factor Is Vision!”. .................... 339
(cid:103) “Either Everything Is Worship—or Nothing Is Worship”. .... 347
Part 8 (cid:103) “Take Heed Therefore That the Light Which Is in Thee Be
Not Darkness”
23. Ripe for the Harvest.......................................... 355
(cid:103) Unity at All Costs......................................... 355
24. The Coming of the Universal “Christ” for the Many Who Are
ONE vs The Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ for the Few Who
Are His...................................................... 361
(cid:103) The Ultimate “Man of Peace”............................... 361
(cid:103) The Universal “Christ” and “World Teacher”. ............... 364
(cid:103) “And it Was Given unto Him to Make War with the Saints,
and to Overcome Them”................................... 368
(cid:103) “How, Where or When He Will Come Is None of Our
Concern”................................................. 371
(cid:103) Two Paths, Two Christs, Two Kingdoms, Two Eternities...... 376
25. People of Faith vs People of the Faith. ......................... 379
(cid:103) Mindlessly Following the Crowd............................ 379
(cid:103) “A New Religion Has Been Initiated, Which Is No More
Christianity than Chalk Is Cheese”.......................... 384
(cid:103) What on Earth Am I Here For? Keep the Faith!............... 387
Endnotes........................................................ 395
Note to the Reader
In 2004, the devastating Asian Tsunami hit Indonesia and the
surrounding regions. Non-existent and deficient warning systems
contributed to its widespread destruction, which was triggered by
a massive shift in the plates on the ocean floor.
Today, a tidal wave is sweeping through Christianity leaving
spiritual destruction in its wake as it overtakes sleeping churches
(not to mention seminaries, organizations, music and publishing
industries, etcetera). This tidal wave has been triggered by a massive
shift in the foundations of today’s Christianity. As was the case in
Asia, a deficient warning system is contributing to the destruction.
This “paradigm shift”—a new way of thinking about God and
the world—is a massive shift in thinking from God’s absolute truth
to man’s relativism. The destructive tidal wave that is following this
shift is sweeping people away from the faith and into the New
Spirituality that transcends religious barriers.
Yet in the midst of all this, only a relatively few number of peo-
ple in the Church have been diligently trying to warn the Body of
Christ, and local churches continue to transform into the image of
the world. Claiming that warnings and exhortations are too “nega-
tive” and “judgmental,” local churches often choose to malign and
marginalize those attempting to warn them, and the warnings go
unheeded.
A sign of the times, purpose-driven churches and pastors have
referred to believers trying to warn them in such terms as “malcon-
tents,” “heresy hunters,” “elitists,” “fruit inspectors,” “the vocal
minority,” “the opponents,” and “blessed subtractions.” The latter
term refers to those who bless these purpose-driven churches by
leaving them, so the churches can go with the flow without fear of
scriptural admonishments and warnings.
I had already begun to research the Purpose-Driven Paradigm
when my own church began the purpose-driven transformation.
Knowing what the transformation entailed, my family left the
church. I continued my research and wrote an introductory article
to try and warn people who didn’t see the deception. Later, I set out
to complete the article which I intended to be only about 25 pages
long. Yet as I collected information and addressed the deception in
my article, it gradually grew longer and longer. What I had expected
9
In the Name of Purpose
to be a one-month project on an article has turned into a one-and-
a-half-year project on a book. This book is unconventional, but I
have done my best to present a great deal of information that
people in the deception appear to have missed. Still, this informa-
tion barely scratches the surface of the whole new way of thinking
pervading today’s Christianity.
The amount of Scripture has been included because what Scrip-
ture says is the point. God’s truth has been one of the casualties in
the new way of thinking, and many people are simply unaware or
don’t remember what God’s Word actually says. This lack of knowl-
edge facilitates the spread of deception. The Holy Scriptures were
written by God for all people, not just for theologians and pastors.
If you are among the readers who already know the Scriptures
which have been included, give thanks to God for your knowledge
of His Word. Instead of possibly feeling put off by my inclusion of
Scripture’s basics, keep in mind that these have been included for
any readers who might not know them and who commonly will not
take the time to look up all the provided references. I would much
rather ‘err’ in including too much than not enough.
Compelled by the Lord and by a grieving heart to do more than
merely watch as Christianity is increasingly overtaken by the flood
of relativism, this book is offered from my heart for you to consider
the larger picture and its danger.
The enemy has come in like a flood, and it is incumbent upon
all watchful believers to faithfully sound the alarm in the manner in
which God compels us. Warning the global Body of Christ is not a
private matter. The alarm must continue to be sounded publicly
regarding this very public and very real danger.
In addition, we are called to speak the truth in love, not to help
people feel good in their error or worry about what people will think
of us when we go against the tide. Warning people in the path of a
destructive tidal wave is done by urgently proclaiming the truth, not
by offering sugar-coated affirmations. Yet the pseudo-battle be-
tween “positive” and “negative” has people covering their ears to
warnings about the departure from the faith.
Our battle is not against flesh and blood. It is “against princi-
palities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this
10