(Please see yesterday’s post, Assembly of God leader promotes heretical author)
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If God was giving me a ham, I’d be crazy not to receive it. Maybe it was the ham of God, who takes away the sins of the world. –Anne Lamott, from Plan B: Further Thoughts On Faith [ A Lamott punchline to a story]
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My love for Campolo and Lamott are not tied to a spiritually compromised set of beliefs. Rather, it is for their spirituality and focus on a Christ consciousness that I admire. Universalism is not part of my admiration. (Bold mine) — T. Ray Rachels, SoCal Superintendent Assemblies of God, Nov. 30, 2009 email
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The problem with God — or at any rate, one of the top five most annoying things about God — is that he or she rarely answers right away. (Bold mine) –Anne Lamott, Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith
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But does it not concern you that Lamott is a universalist? If I had received letters such as I sent you, I would be looking very closely at what Campolo teaches, and who he recommends, and what he has written. –My email to Superintendent Rachels, Nov.7, 2009
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Just a note back to you. If it is ‘truth,’ it is from God! Lamott and Campolo write profound truth, for which my mind and heart is touched. I never throw out the ‘baby with the bath water.’ Great ideas stand on their own feet. (Bold mine) –T. Ray Rachels, Nov. 9, 2009 email
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We are coming to a point where the Biblical Christ will just be one of the many “christs” worshiped. Doctrine will not be important–just say “Christ” or “Christ-consciousness,” and zowie! Dude, you’re officially a Christ-follower. So we can accept and worship the “christ” of The Shack, or the…thing…that comes to us during contemplative prayer, or even the idol of our vain imaginations. Together. All one big Christ-following family.
Of course, the Bible will have to be dumbed down. But then, we already have The Message, so we’re off to a good start there. What else? Well, that doctrine of substitutionary atonement will have to be done away with. No one likes being thought of as a sinner anyway… Well, yes, but didn’t we hear something about the Lamb also being a Lion? Hmmm…it doesn’t say that in The Shack. Anne Lamott never says that about Jesus. And she’s a writer, so she’s smart.
But not wise.
And Jesus answered and said to them, “See to it that no one misleads you. For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will mislead many.” (Matthew 24: 4-5)
More: What the Pentecostal Evangel Magazine Deleted: http://mywordlikefire.wordpress.com/2010/02/16/here-is-what-aog-pentecostal-evangel-deleted/
