As we have seen in previous posts, Redeemer Church in New York city, with Tim Keller as pastor, has prayer resources that endorse the Catholic mystics and their way of doing prayer. The church web site even has the book Sacred Companions by David Benner listed on the bottom of the page that gives the instructions on how to practice Lectio Divina. Those methods are said to bring a person to a more intimate experience with God. Yet, there is no such teaching in God’s Word for us to do those things. Much of what passes as Spiritual Formation that includes the Catholic mystics and their methods are things taken from Eastern religions and the occult. Spiritual Formation is ecumenical in that all the religions of the world practice different forms of mysticism and meditation. God forbids us to have anything to do with the occult and He forbids us to copy the world’s false religions.
There are many excellent Biblical books recommended by Redeemer Church. However, there are also books listed that are written by false teachers. These should cause us to have concern that poison has been added to the list. N. T. Wright’s books are recommended under several of the reading resources listed on Redeemer Church website. This will only mention the following from the parents resources.
Under the list of books recommended in the parents section, the devotional by Richard Foster is also listed. This book has readings by Catholic mystics.
DEVOTIONAL CLASSICS – Richard Foster
52 selections, organized to introduce readers through the course of one year to the great devotional writers. each selection is edited and includes an introduction and meditation by Richard Foster, as well as a linked biblical passage, discussion questions, and individual and group exercises. includes readings from: Augustine of Hippo, Frances of Assisi, Julian of Norwich, Martin Luther, Ignatius of Loyola, John Calvin, Teresa Avila, Blaise Pascal, Soren Kierkegaard, Evelyn Underhill, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Thomas Merton, Dallas Willard, CS Lewis, and more. (103 books are excerpted).
The Work of God: Benedictine Prayer. This book is also recommended reading under the resource reading list for parents at Redeemer Church, New York. The practice of Lectio Divina is given on page 99.
Under this same list of recommended books for parents are the Bible commentaries by N. T. (Tom) Wright, a bishop in the Anglican Church. He is known also for his New Perspective on Paul.
Tom Wright Commentaries – like the John one we used this year, Wright has others. (This is Bishop N. T. Wright)
Looking up these commentaries, it becomes clear they are ecumenical.
One customer review of Romans for Everyone:
TOM WRIGHT–FOR EVERYONE! 10-06-07 by (private)
Bishop Tom Wright’s Romans for Everyone is the finest, most challenging exposition of Romans available today. Regardless of where you are on the denominational spectrum–from Pentecostal to Roman Catholic-Tom Wright’s Bible studies are amazing. His use of contemporary examples bring what for many Christians is "old stuff" to life again. You thought you knew Romans (or any of his other New Testament bible studies)? Well you will find yourself saying many times over: "I never knew that!!" You will not be disappointed.
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Just what does Bishop N. T. Wright believe regarding the death and resurrection of our LORD Jesus Christ? The following will show that Bishop Wright’s views are far from the truth that is in God’s Word. His views are indeed poison to anyone who believes them.
N. T. Wright dismisses penal substitution
I suspect that Bishop N. T. Wright would not appreciate my saying that he has dismissed penal substitution, especially since he himself maintains that he holds to “something that can be called ‘penal substitution.’” But this affirmation is precisely the problem. His definition of penal substitution is clearly at odds with what penal substitution is (at least historically defined).
In an essay titled “The Cross and the Caricatures,” Wright contends that any idea of an angry Father punishing his loving Son is a “caricature” of the penal substitution theory of the atonement. Wright affirms Steve Chalke’s definition of Christ’s atonement, which he describes as follows:
“On the cross, as an expression of God’s love, Jesus took into and upon himself the full force of all the evil around him, in the knowledge that if he bore it we would not have to; but this, which amounts to a form of penal substitution, is quite different from other forms of penal substitution, such as the medieval model of a vengeful father being placated by an act of gratuitous violence against his innocent son. In other words, there are many models of penal substitution, and the vengeful-father-and-innocent-son story is at best a caricature of the true one.”
