Are You A Christian... Redeemed By The Blood Of The Lamb Part II    What is of good report of Carl Jung? What is noble about his personality theory, which he also drew from paganism and a spirit-guide that possessed him? Are not these things clearly abhorred by both Jesus Christ and the Apostle Paul? We are to flee these things, not embrace, promote them and feed them to God's children. You want to call your kind of meditation Biblical. But I challenge you to go through the entire Old and New Testaments and do a word search for the word "meditate" or "meditation", and look it up in the Hebrew and the Greek (as you did with the word "you" in the New Testament). You will not find one instance or precedent for the word meaning anything close to your revisionist definition. You will not find a precedent for it. You will not find an example of Jesus Christ or any of the Apostles practicing it or recommending it. But you will find it practiced and promoted in Eastern Meditation and the New Age Movement. Finally, the New Age Movement did not borrow or hijack centering down from Christianity. Though not under the same name, the practice is as ancient as Babylon and the Tower of Babel. And the Tower of Babel was constructed because of the same lie Satan used in the Garden of Eden, "You shall be as God." When you say "church" you mean Roman Catholicism and the Carmelite Order traditions. But Roman Catholicism is both pagan and apostate. Indeed, your version of centering down indeed matastesized into the Church and spread spiritual death into the Church, just as various forms of cancer metastasize in the organs of the human body, eventually causing physical death. Your form of "centering down" is also rooted in the Church's first and tragically on-going heresy, Gnosticism. Despite what you believe and stated above, centering down has no rich history or even existence in the TRUE CHURCH. For you to claim that New Age beliefs are only recent, reveals a tragic lack of knowledge of both history and Scripture. As the prophet Hosea declares: "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children." Hosea 4:6 KJV General Assumption. To say that Richard Foster admires Thomas Merton because he quotes him is an assumption you have drawn, not a verifiable fact. RESPONSE: It is absolutely astounding to me that you would make this statement with all of the Merton quotes Richard Foster has in his book. One does not have to assume what a person clearly states and publishes. Here is a quote from Richard Foster, quoting Thomas Merton: "...offers you an understanding and light which are like nothing ever found in books or heard in sermons" Richard Foster further says of Thomas Merton: "Thomas Merton has perhaps done more than any other twentieth-century figure to make the life of prayer widely known and understood." Foster considers Merton's book, Contemplative Prayer, "a must book". He also states, "Merton continues to inspired countless men and women," and credits his books as being filled with priceless wisdom for all Christian who long to go deeper in the spiritual life." SOURCE: A TIME OF DEPARTING, Ray Yungen, Trailhouse Trails Publishing Company, 2002. These quotes were drawn from Richard Foster's books: Devotional Classics and Meditative Prayer. And this is not admiring Thomas Merton? If note, I would surely be curious to know what a good example would be, by your own definition! If this is not enough, Richard Foster lavishes praise on a host of other authors and teachers who share very similar views to Thomas Merton. Even if Richard Foster does not technically use the word "admire" then proceeds to lace his commentary with one complement after another, what reader could come away with any other conclusion? What your comment clearly shows me is that you are doing nothing more than parsing at words and straining at gnats, while you swallow the camel of ideas that clearly oppose Biblical Christianity. Richard Foster clearly shows support for Thomas Merton, William L. Vaswig and Karen Mains, in spite of your trying to distance yourself from them.   THEOLOGICAL ISSUE 1. By citing all of the biblical verses that connect the imagination with evil, are you saying that the imagination that you use in composing and arranging music is evil? You, along with every other person in the arts uses the imagination in the creation of their pieces whether sculpture, music, paintings, poems, and more. Inventors use their imaginations to create new products. Seamstresses use their imagination to buy material for a new garment. Children use their imaginations during play. As you have tried to explain, the Bible is key to understanding the influence of evil upon the imagination. The Old Testament does connect the imagination with evil, but the verses you cite are descriptive of people with unregenerated imaginations. From the Fall until Jesus' birth, life, death, and resurrection through today, evil imaginations--along with evil hearts and evil actions--describe the predicament of the human race. But Jesus Christ provides a way out of the predicament. Think with me a little. What does Jesus Christ redeem when we accept him as Savior? Just our spirits? Our souls? Our minds with its imaginations? RESPONSE: I address the question of imagination in earlier paragraphs. Regarding the Old Testament, being unregenerated was not describing some people but everyone who did not fear the Lord (which was most people). And except for Noah and his family, it was everyone who drowned in the Flood. But just because we have regenerated minds and imaginations does not give us license to use our imaginations to practice the very things we practiced with unregenerated minds, i.e., eastern meditation, vain repetition chants or mantras, your meaning of centering, etc.; or promote teachers who do practice these magic arts, such as Carl Jung and many others. If you want to know what we are to practice, then read what the Bible says about sanctification and Sound Doctrine and the narratives of how they REALLY meditated! And by the way, the New Testament connects imagination to evil too (see the verses I already sent you), such as the verse: "(For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;" 2 Corinthians 10:4-5, Our bodies? This is the message of the birth, life, death, and resurrection of the fully human Jesus Christ described in the New Testament: that he bought and paid for our whole beings--hearts, minds, bodies, souls, and spirits. Of course, a Christian's mind and imagination can be used to ill purposes. The verse you quote, 2 Corinthians 10:5, makes this very point. As regenerated humans (Christians) we are to bring every THOUGHT into obedience to Christ. This would be impossible if our minds with its imaginations were excluded from the process of redemption and sanctification. Taken to its logical conclusion, to say that all imagination is evil is to declare your own musical compositions evil. RESPONSE: If as you properly quote that we are to bring every thought into the obedience of Christ, then what place does DISOBEYING Christ by engaging in magic arts or quoting and promoting them that do? EXEGETICAL ISSUES Quoting out of context. This is a common mistake made by people trying to support their position. When reading Scripture we must first determine several things: its historical context (when was it written?), its cultural context (to whom was it written?), its redemptive context (at what stage in revelation was this written?), its author (who wrote it?), its purpose (why was it written?), its literary context (what type of literature is this?), its provenance (where was it written?) to name a few. Once we answer these questions, we can start to understand particular verses or sections of Scripture. And I say "start" because as citizens of the 21st century we can never fully understand the entire context of Scripture written by the authors of the New Testament, much less that written by Moses and David! RESPONSE: Can't be understood huh? Is that what the Apostle Paul meant when he said: "For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, [even] his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:" Romans 1:20 Is that what the Apostle Paul meant when he said: "For we do not write you anything you can not read or understand" 2 Corinthians 2:13 NIV As that what the Apostle John meant when he said: "My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:" I John 2:1 Now if they could not "fully understand the entire context" of what John was saying, how would they understand how NOT to sin? Jesus Christ and the Apostle spend extensive discourse in warning about deception and false teaching. And with reference to the Last Days prophecies, they devote MORE text to deception (in the Church). If the Word is not clear or easily understood, how would we know how and when we are deceived? We must always remember that God's revelation of his purposes in history is "progressive". In other words, God reveals his plan for the redemption of humanity after the Fall a little bit at a time: through the life of Abraham and Sarah and their family, the Law, the nation of Israel, and so on. Determining the context of Scripture helps us avoid applying those Scriptures to our lives that aren't meant for us. RESPONSE: Are you suggesting that we don't need to flee from divination, astrology, paganism, necromancy, sorcery, mindless vain repetition prayers, centering down, magic arts just as much today and repent from practicing them just as much as in the time the Scriptures are recorded? That there are changes in the faith once and for all delivered to the Apostles that we are to no longer contend for? Paul warned the First Century Church about teaching things that ought not to be taught in his First Letter to Timothy then tells us the Second Letter to Timothy these very same doctrines of demons and seducing spirits, alive and well in the First Century, would visit us again in the Last Days. Both Isaiah and the Apostle Paul warn us that deception and wickedness would wax worse and worse. These warnings are clearly just as much for us today as believers. Finally, if you are so wary about what Scriptures say regarding false teaching and church discipline apply to us today, what hermeutical principles that you list did you use to determine that your version of meditation is even for today? For example, who among Christians would contend that we need to keep all of the Levitical laws and traditions? No one. They weren't written for that purpose. They were addressed to a particular people for a particular purpose in a particular time. As Christians we are to view the Mosaic Law as fulfilled in Jesus Christ and, as Paul writes to the church in Galatia, as "our tutor to lead us to Christ" (Gal. 3:24). RESPONSE: While there are some Christians today who attempt to keep Levitical laws and traditions (such as Seventh Day Adventists and some sects of Messianic Fellowships), we know that we are free from the legality of the Mosaic Law because of Christ's fulfillment. For that matter it was impossible to keep all the laws....no one ever did that...even at the time of the Levitical Priesthood. As you stated, the Scriptures clearly teach that Christ is the fulfillment of the Mosaic Law. However, there is nowhere in Scripture that we are given permission, however, to practice the meditative techniques that Richard Foster is promoting. "Days and diets" are negotiable, but doctrine and morals are essentials which do not have an expiration date. It is extremely ironic that you would quote Galatians in which Paul tells the Galatian Church that if anyone preach another gospel than what he first preached let him be eternally damned. Or are you going to tell me that this letter was intended only for the Galatians and only for the First Century, or to use your words: "for a particular purpose in a particular time?" No, once we are led to Christ, we cannot go back to the same practices we were delivered from. The same practices of magic arts that Jesus Christ himself declares in Revelation that no one who practices them will have a place inside of the New Jerusalem. If the magic arts are condemned in the First Century, and they are condemned up to the Last Days, how are they then acceptable practices in between, during the last two thousand years? Paul also said that his letters should be read to the other churches. So I guess that would mean they apply to them too! How useful is your long list of hermeneutical questions, if in the end in your words: "as citizens of the 21st century we can never fully understand the context of Scripture?" For the answers are fundamentally unknowable according to your argument. Yet you promote the idea that "meditation" is not only acceptable in the 21st Century, it is valuable to know God better. How did you determine that is for the 21st Century, for even after employing your schematic of hermeneutics, we are still not able to fully understand the context? How do you know, as you put it, that meditation is not just for a certain time and place in history? Well of course meditation is also for today, but that is Biblical meditation, not Eastern meditation. Now why didn't you apply your hermeneutics principles to the word "meditate" to find out what it really meant and its context throughout the Bible, before you use your imagination to interpret what the word means? Or worse, revise the meaning to allow you to imagine things for which there is no Biblical precedent or injunction to do so! You tout Biblical hermeneutics yet use revisionist exegesis and isagesis to force meaning into and out of the word that it NEVER possessed. You want me to use hermeneutics, something you think I fail to use properly or even understand? Well here is what the Contemplative Prayer Movement, Mysticism, and Gnosticism has done to the word meditate. This principle in hermeneutics is called "unwarranted expansion of a grammatical field". Or to put in in laymen's terms "using your imagination to invent a meaning and context of a word that is without justification." And here is another principle, or should I say actual Scripture that bears on this very subject: "Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation. For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them bringing swift destruction on themselves. 2 Peter 1:20 2:1 NIV By the way, Peter also warned, along with Jesus Christ, that the Last Days would be just like in the Days of Noah....same sins...same false teaching. Nothing new under the sun, as Solomon said! Proof Texting. This is another common mistake people make when trying to prove an argument from Scripture. I've already dealt with the fact that all except one of the verses you cite to prove that the imagination is evil are from the Old Testament and refer to the unregenerate person. RESPONSE: Well you repeat the same error....that evil imagination refers primarily to the Old Testament (see reference above which proves it is in the New Testament too!). The nature of man has not changed since the Fall of Adam. What are your saying? Even if there were only one Scripture in the New Testament in reference to imagination, that is all it takes to make it true. The word Trinity isn't even in there at all, but its concept is all through both Testaments and is a pillar of Orthodox Christianity! About the false teaching verses, of course there are false teachers. But who is to ferret them out and reprove them? The individual? The pastor? The gathered congregation? The Church? Reading the verses that you copied leaves the impression that individuals are to find and expose false teachers, but it is very clear from Scripture that anyone who is preaching false doctrine or bringing disgrace to the gathered community is to be exposed and disciplined in the midst of the body of Christ. RESPONSE: The answer to who ferrets our false teachers? Every Christian! We forfeited the right to remain silent the day we became Christians. Now at some point it may be only the elders who have the judicial or employer authority to actually fire or excommunicate such a false teacher. But any Christian can and should endeavor to identify them....based on all of the Scriptures I cited and sent to you earlier. All false teachers and false prophets need to be identified and opposed.  And I am sure that we both agree that no one is to bring an accusation against an elder without the testimony of two or more.  A host of discernment ministries around the world have already done this regarding Richard Foster (I will cite them at the end of this document). I also would like to submit that there are really four stages regarding "who" should do what regarding false teachers.  They are: 1. Identifying, 2. Labeling (marking)  3. Disciplining, and 4. Restoration (if possible). Stage One: Identifying False Teachers It is the responsibility of every Christian to identify false teaching and false prophecies.  Scriptural proof: Paul commending the Bereans, Paul's open door to every Christian in Galatians, Paul's commandment in Ephesians Chapter 5 to expose all deeds of darkness, Paul's commandment as to whom to not even allow in your door (this would have to be every Christian....at their homes....not at the church). Every Christian has this right and commandment even.  Reason: it is the heart of the Great Commission.  Any time you say that Jesus Christ is the only way to Salvation and Heaven you are simultaneously saying that anyone who teaches anything else is a false teacher.  Anytime you say that whoever does not believe in Jesus Christ is condemned to Eternal Hell and suffering.  So you are simultaneously saying that whoever does not teach that is a false teacher. Nothing hard about this, John 3:16-17 will tell you this. And if they deny that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh you are saying even more than that they are a false teacher, they are an antichrist, according to the Apostle John.  So the list just keeps getting longer as any Christian who can identify a teaching which does not line up with the Doctrine of the Apostles and the Faith Once and for all Delivered to the Saints.  Stage Two: Labeling (Marking) False Teachers Matthew 18 gives no restrictions among Christians as to who can label, no restrictions in Ephesians 5, no restrictions in testing the spirits.  And there are no restrictions on who can mark them that causing division. Now there is an added ability by those who have the Gift of Discerning of Spirits.  And there is added ability and authority for elders who need to be equipped to identify false teachers and prophets.  Paul's Second letter to the Thessalonians (everyone) speaks of not associating with any who do not obey the instructions in this letter....so any Christian can label such a person. Contending for the faith is for all believers.  Note in this verse where Paul is addressing the brethren (plural)....not just the elders...but the whole church....no community gathering is implied to be necessary:  "Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them.  For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple." (Rom 16:17-18) A further note on labeling false teachers.  In many cases, we don't even have to investigate or get two or more witness because many of these false teachers are self-labeled.  Their own testimony and teaching is already public record, for all to read.  So it is not a matter of determining whether it is true or secret.  Their own testimony condemns themselves.  So it is only responsible for every Christian to declare and warn everyone about such teachers.  Now on the other hand if their false teaching is only suspected and not already proven by being in print, and is only  hearsay, a Christian who then labels that teacher as a false teacher (without proof) would be guilty of all sorts of sins: gossip, bearing false witness against a brother, slander, sowing strife among the brethren, etc. Finally, and this is very important, there are false teachers who are clearly not Christians and there are those who either are Christians or profess that they are. If a pastor or teacher teaches false teaching, they are not immediately labelled or marked as false teachers....we all make mistakes. IT is only if they refuse correction, and ONLY after a second warning do you have the right to call them a false teacher. Peter promoted some false teachings, but would not be considered a false teacher because he repented. Richard Foster has been warned at least twice and still refuses to repent, so any Christian is perfectly within their rights to label or mark him as a false teacher and warn anyone considering his books or any church considering inviting him to speak. Here is the Biblical authority for you to take this action: "A man that is an heretick after the first and second admonition reject; Knowing that he that is such is subverted, and sinneth, being condemned of himself." Titus 3:10-11 Stage Three: Disciplining False Teachers Now here is where I think WHO becomes very important.  Only the Elders in the Church really have the power to remove such a false teacher, or to at least silence him or her IN THAT PARTICULAR LOCAL CONGREGATION.  But in many cases, such a false teacher would have been in someone else's church.  It is rather difficult if not practically impossible to remove or silence such a teacher in another man's church.  But you can certainly warn your own congregation and other congregations.  In probably most cases false teachers lead congregations that have all already "drunk the coolaid" and would never oppose or remove their teacher.  They would only oppose all who would dare speak against him. The church really does not have a mechanism to discipline all of the false teacher authors in the marketplace.  But we all can speak out against them, write our own articles and books, support discernment ministries that do.  I reiterate and agree that as a whole, a lone voice can't speak out.  But if a priest falsely teaches a confessioner that it is good to have relations with the young altar boy, I hope this lone voice shouts it from the rooftops!  Sadly a host did not, for many years, so the problem became an epidemic.  The Bible is as much concerned about spiritual harlotry as it is literal harlotry.  If I were a murderer or rapist and thought I could get away with it simply by assuring that there never would be the testimony of two or more, to convict me, I would surely make sure there was never two or more witnesses every time I wanted to murder someone.  We have to be very careful with that Scripture.  Now, regarding the names I mentioned in my document as false teachers.   I can assure you that I am not a lone voice.  There are a great number of pastors and discernment ministries who have made the same discoveries about Richard Foster and many others like him.  But this is not rocket science.  Any Christian can get and read these false teacher's books, articles, hear and view their own tapes and then line up their teachings themselves with the Canon of Scripture.  It is a big difference when these teachers have published their material.  I don't need any governing body around to make a ruling to warn everyone about a person who teaches that the Trinity is Nine, such as what Benny Hinn taught.  And the fact is that Church Discipline is now almost extinct.  The churches that do have authority where the false teacher is a member rarely take any action, because they all believe the false teaching themselves.  So it is up to the rest of us to mark them. Stage Four (Restoration) of False Teachers Of course the desired goal is that the false teacher repent and be restored to the congregation, not necessarily the pulpit.  Elders can make this official.  But all of the church can love and encourage a repentant false teacher.  Now if such a false teacher is published, there would seem to be some need to make restitution or publish recantations to all they have caused to stumble.  The Book of Philemon is one of the best examples of restoration of a believer (Paul's plea for Onesimus).  But I can't think of one example in the Bible where a false teacher repented and was restored to the pulpit. The Apostle Peter would not qualify, for he never was removed from being an elder or Apostle. It never became necessary because he repented. Richard Foster has not.. A few more words on lone voice speaking out against spiritual or literal harlotry.  If you have a situation in a church that even the Apostle Paul encountered when he records: A few more words on lone voice speaking out against spiritual or literal harlotry.  If you have a situation in a church that even the Apostle Paul encountered when he records: I speak to your shame. Is it so, that there is not a wise man among you? no, not one that shall be able to judge between his brethren? I Corinthians 6:5 In such a scenario, you may have only one lone voice who is wise and discerning.  Should this lone voice then remain silent because he is the only voice?  You may end up without even one wise among that local church.  But another church or another lone voice may exist who is wise and discerning.  Should that person speak out, even though he is the lone voice? When Jesus asked when he returns will he find faith on the earth, wouldn't this imply a great falling away to the point that in many cities and churches you may very well only have one lone voice, or have to look elsewhere for one.  Now of course it is much better if there is more than one voice and the testimony of two or more. But if there is not do we still remain silent? Jesus instructs when a person sins, to go to that person in private first. Then, if there is still a problem, bring one or two other people to the table of discussion. If that doesn't solve the issue, then it is to be brought before the congregation (Matt. 18:15-17). RESPONSE: This is primarily referring to a private matter between two Christians, it is not PRIMARILY addressing false teaching, though I believe Matthew 18 should also be invoked early on before the person being confronted has had a chance to spread his false gospel or teaching. But if that has already happened, it is too late for Matthew 18, at least in the sense of two individual parties resolving the offense just between the two of them, very simply because it is no longer private. And even then, it is not as though you can settle the matter as though it were a property dispute. The teaching is either true or it is false! If you are interested in the view of virtual every Conservative Scholar on this text who invoke the principles of hermeneutics that you so devoutly espouse, they confirm this to be so. Now I am surprised you would invoke Matthew 18 to me, for this is exactly what I have done in approaching Richard Foster. So why am I not talking to Richard Foster? If Richard Foster believes this passage, why isn't he responding to my further concerns and emails regarding his teaching? Why are you declaring that Richard Foster refuses to respond to the letter from Ray Yungen, who very diplomatically appealed to you to repent of your teaching, so that they could both implement Matthew 18? How is Richard Foster able to go the altar to bring a sacrifice without first making things right with his brother Ray Yungen, according to Scripture?? The Epistles contain guidance on many issues that congregations face as a body, including blatant sin and teaching false doctrine, and how to deal with them. Most of the pastoral and general epistles were written to either the pastor of a congregation or a congregation. I have gone through many of them in the Greek to find out whether the "you" in the Pastoral Epistles or the number in nouns and verbs is singular or plural. In almost every instance, they are plural. The exceptions include instruction to a particular pastor on how to deal with a situation in a church or personal advice, e.g. when Paul tells Timothy to drink a little wine for his stomach! When read in the plural, these books take on a whole different life and it changes their perspectives, particularly on issues of practice and discipline (see 1 Corinthians 5:1-12 which is written in the plural.) RESPONSE: Of course there are a host of directions to you (plural) in Greek. But what did you expect Paul to do, name each person one by one and give him the exact same instructions? This would be absurd! No each person as part of the plural you were expected to also comply with Paul's instructions unless, specifically he was identifying one individual with an instruction. As an example, there is a record of the Roman Catholic Pope kissing the Koran as a sign of ecumenism. Am I not to warn anyone that he is a false teacher until I go to him privately? Islam is responsible for more shed blood of the saints than any religion in history, rivaled only by Roman Catholicism, Islam's fellow daughter of Babylon. Are you suggesting that I must go through the Church Discipline procedure to silence the Pope? The Catholic Church would not even allow such a procedure. But it sure would be wonderful if the Church did exercise church discipline with people like this. Unfortunately, it is swiftly becoming a dinosaur (see points above where I enumerate Biblical options for who can name false teachers). I am all for Matthew 18 and I Corinthians 5:1-12. But if a teacher such as Richard Foster has already published his teachings, then the privacy component is no longer even possible, as it is obliterated by the teacher himself making his teaching public. And if the Church fails to act, we must still warn the rest of the Body of Christ. This reinforces my previous point: we always place a verse in its larger context before we determine what it says to us and the Church today. To use several Scriptures as proof texts does violence to those verses by cutting them from their contexts, thus presenting a hodge podge of guidance and instruction. (The classic joke about proof texting goes something like this: A man was having trouble in his life and in trying to decide what to do he consults the Scriptures. So he balances the Bible on its spine and removes his hands. When the Bible falls open, he reads the first passage that his eyes fall on, "Judas went out and hanged himself." Since he had decided to do the exercise several times until he got clear instruction, he again balances the Bible on its spine, letting it fall open. The next time he reads, "Go and do likewise"!) RESPONSE: I address context at length in previous paragraphs. There is no context in the Church today where divination, summoning up spirits, Eastern Meditation (opposite of Biblical meditation) is allowed. This brings us back to where we started.  As you propose, is Richard Foster misleading people because he quotes Carl Jung? No. Could he have found another person to quote? Maybe. Do the quotes he uses from Carl Jung strengthen Foster's argument? Yes. Even though Jung may not have been an orthodox Christian, he recognized that the Devil can lead us astray through busyness and that all adults need to regain the imaginations they lost as their parents "civilized" them. Again I address Carl Jung extensively above and why he should not be given any credence. He particularly should not be quoted because he is one possessed by a demon, one of Satan's fallen angels. Jung and Biblical Christianity don't even share the same understanding of who the Devil is! So Christians should not gain or regain false visions that Satan would love to give them. (Is it possible that great inventors and creative artists are unique because they never lost their God-given, childhood imaginations?) Should Foster declare Thomas Merton a false teacher? No. RESPONSE: I must beseech you to tell you that is not Biblically correct! Particularly as you point out, Richard Foster has his Phd in Pastoral Theology. Pastor is another word for Overseer. And what does the Bible say about his responsibility? Elders have a greater responsibility and a stricter accounting being teachers. So, yes, Richard Foster should declare Thomas Merton a false teacher! Better yet, Richard Foster should do so from a position of repentance for his own false teaching. Here is just one Scriptural passage to verify that pastors do need to declare who is a false teacher: "Since an overseer is entrusted with God's work, he must....refute those who oppose it....they must be silenced because they are ruining whole households." Titus 1: 7-11 NIV This is the responsibility of the gathered community. RESPONSE: What gathered community? Do you mean the Church? Martin Luther did not bring the gathered community together to confront the Catholic Church. He was the lone voice, at first. But he was the one on trial. So was Martin Luther to remain silent until he could recruit more that agree with him? Indeed the local Church should ultimately act. But if it won't that does not mean we (the rest of the Body of Christ) should be silent. And who is going to gather together in a community to identify Robert Schuller as a false teacher? There may never be such a "gathered community." The Apostle Paul identified a number of false teachers without the community even gathering. One more comment. The verse you quote, Romans 16:7, "Now I beseech you, brethren (plural), mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye (plural) have learned; and avoid them" was written by Paul to the Roman church--a church meeting in homes scattered throughout the city--that needed vital instruction on how to deal with people who were teaching and doing things contrary to his teaching. This verse was not written to give individuals authority to search out anyone they think is a false teacher or a heretic or worse and then write an "expose" about that person in a book or on the web. Today is the first time in Church history when individuals have self-appointed themselves to hunt out people they have determined are unorthodox and pursue them relentlessly through various mass media until their reputations and ministries are ruined. According to the guidelines given to us by Jesus and the Epistles, today's self-appointed heresy hunters are operating outside the biblical and historical Church. RESPONSE: This is so absurd I can not even believe I am reading this. Millions of individuals throughout the history of the Church have been running for their lives because they dared to speak the truth about heresy after heresy. Countless persecuted and martyred saint's blood cries out from the ground. These people had but to remain silent, as you suggest. But thank God they did not. You need to read Fox's Book of Martyrs just for starters, then repent for having made such an irresponsible statement. The Roman Catholic Church, which you embrace in your ecumenical Renovare organization, hunted down true Christians and burned them at the stake. The Roman Catholic Church were heretic hunters, but they were the true heretics. If you are so passionately opposed to heretic hunters, then who don't you oppose the organization that is responsible for the death of more saints than any organization in history? Regarding Richard Foster, I did not have to hunt him down. The aroma of his teaching is in the air conditioning systems of thousands of churches and is coming out of the pores of where I have witnessed the saturation of Carl Jung teaching, particularly the Willowcreek Church and Association and Rick Warren's toolbox which feeds tens of thousands of churches and pastors all over the world. This leads one to ask, what if the gathered community doesn't act when a person is involved in willful sin or teaches false doctrine? As an individual, my duty is to pray about the situation and bring the issue to the community to which that person belongs if I am so led by the Holy Spirit. If the community doesn't do anything, then I avoid that person and depend on God to judge and deal with that person's actions and the inaction of the community. I know this goes against everything that the American culture and our natural impulses tell us, but we are members of the Kingdom of God with an agenda and destiny that is 180 degrees counter to the Kingdom of Man. RESPONSE: Yes there is a point where you avoid the unrepentant brother and shake the dust from your feet. But we are to never stop warning every other church about this false teacher, particularly when his or her teachings continue to be published and church after hapless church continues to import their teachings and the teacher themselves. As long as we have breath we must do this. Your idea to cease to maintain a voice is exactly what happen in the pedophile priest scandal and Cardinal Law. The given local community followed your instructions. Meanwhile the Roman Catholic Archbishop, Bernard Law simply shuffled perpetrators off to another unsuspecting parish. Besides, there is not a shred of Scriptural precedent where we are to cease warning the Church about an unrepentant false teacher. The Epistles were circulated throughout all of Christendom so that every community outside of the local gathered community would be warned, while those false teachers were alive. And they are in circulation to this day so that false teachers teaching the same ideas could be identified and marked. That is why Richard Foster must be marked and everyone warned! These ministries should be ruined. These false teachers would not have had their reputations ruined if they were not teaching ideas contrary to the Apostles Doctrine. They have only themselves to blame. Don't shoot the messenger. In closing, can I make three suggestions? 1.  That you seriously consider the positive influence the writings of people like Richard Foster have had on the spiritual lives of people in conjunction with the negative impact the books and web sites that slam fellow Christians have had on people's lives. RESPONSE: I don't agree with your premise. Richard Foster's teachings are not a positive influence. They, along with Carl Jung and a host of other teachers he quotes are a Clear and Present Danger to the Church! Pray over it. Ponder it. Ask God to help you discern the answer. The criteria I use to discern the impact of a ministry is this: Does ministry help people be a "light on a hill" to the rest of the world or live the life Jesus taught, "I came that they might have life and have it more abundantly" (John 10:10)? RESPONSE: I use the same criteria and ask the same question: Does the ministry help people? But I determine whether it helps someone, not by subjective means but by testing the teaching against Scripture. I check the root systems of the teaching. A thornbush can not produce figs. You can call it a fig all you want, but it is still a thorn. I check out where did the ideas come from from the teachers of the teachers as well. If they do not speak to the Law and the Prophets, there is no light in them...not some light, not alot of light. NO LIGHT! Regarding "help"...the following Scripture capsulizes where I believe our help should come from: "I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. My help [cometh] from the LORD, which made heaven and earth." Psalm 121:1-2 And by the way, note once again, the eyes are OPEN!