|
In The News |
|||
February 26 - "What is Renovaré / the Renovaré Bible?"Article: Unbiblical Christianity
Like so many ideas today, the Renovaré philosophy seems innocuous enough—even deeply spiritual, but there are some elements of the Renovaré movement that give cause for concern. The organization was founded in 1988 by Quaker theologian Richard J. Foster after the success of his book Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth. In the book, Foster describes how to practice the “twelve spiritual disciplines”—meditation, prayer, fasting, study, simplicity, solitude, submission, service, confession, worship, guidance, and celebration.
Renovaré (the Latin word for “renewal”) purports to work for the renewal of the Church by concentrating on the “spiritual formation” of individual Christians. This “spiritual formation” involves following certain practices and traditions with the result that the life of Christ is formed within the Christian. This sacramental living—a moment-by-moment interaction with God—Foster calls the “with-God life.” Of course, becoming Christlike and developing the inner person should be the goal of every Christian. There are, however, definite red flags that go up when the basic tenets of the Renovaré movement are examined. First, Renovaré is unabashedly ecumenical. “Wisdom” is gathered from Catholic, Episcopal, mystic, and Protestant sources alike, with no regard for the serious theological differences these groups have. Biblical Christianity and Roman Catholicism are two different religions that practice and believe different things about how one is saved, the authority of the Bible, the priesthood of believers, the nature of man, the work of Christ on the cross, and the veneration of and prayer to Mary. The list of irreconcilable differences between what the Bible says and what the Roman Catholic Church says makes any joint mission between the two absolutely impossible. Those who deny this are not being true to what they say they believe, no matter which side they are on. Any Catholic who is serious about his faith will deny what a serious evangelical Christian believes and vice-versa. Second, Renovaré places a heavy emphasis on mysticism to the detriment of solid theology. The release of the Renovaré Spiritual Formation Bible in 2005 has packaged the mystical thinking of Renovaré scholars into “study notes” for the Bible itself. Besides Foster, editors included Dallas Willard, Walter Brueggemann, and Eugene Peterson. In an early edition of The Celebration of Discipline, Foster advises, “In your imagination allow your spiritual body, shining with light, to rise out of your physical body. . . . Reassure your body that you will return momentarily. Imagine your spiritual self, alive and vibrant, rising up through the clouds and into the stratosphere. . . . Go deeper and deeper into outer space until there is nothing except the warm presence of the eternal Creator. Do not be disappointed if no words come; like good friends, you are silently enjoying the company of each other” (p 27). This activity bears a striking resemblance to astral projection and an out-of-body experience, both occult practices that are strictly forbidden in Scripture. The Renovaré Bible also raises the following concerns for Christians: 1) The Renovaré Bible includes the Apocrypha. The editors suggest that the Apocrypha is not to be viewed as equal with Bible; however, they also proclaim that “most of the Church throughout much of history has accepted the Deuterocanonicals as Scripture” (xxx.2). This is not true. The Catholic Church has accepted the Apocrypha as Scripture since the Council of Trent in the mid-16th century, but not “most of the Church,” and not most of the time. Also, Israel never considered the Apocrypha as Holy Writ.
Read Full Article ....
|
