Are Ian Morgan Cron and Suzanne Stabile, who are pushing the Enneagram craze among Christians, truly providing a map to The Road Back to You: An Enneagram Journey to Self-Discovery? Or, should we more accurately call their self-discovery manual “The Road Away from Him?” This is an important question. Are the Scriptures really all about you and me – or are they all about God? And, at a core level, is there really any difference … Continue reading
Category Archives: Occult
The late John Lennon wistfully imagined a world of peace, safety and harmony – a time when “the world will live as one.” His very popular song, Imagine, was released in October 1971. All the world would need to do to reach utopia is to abandon their current wrong-headed “fuddy duddy” religious beliefs and join him, embracing the religious beliefs that he outlines in his song. The song is basically a statement of faith. Imagine … Continue reading
Saints: The Story of the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Days, Volume 1, The Standard of Truth, 1815-1846 (722 Pages. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. $5.99) Reviewed by Kurt Van Gorden The history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon or LDS) has always been an enigma. The church’s published history is a mixture of truth, speculation, and falsified information. To resolve that, history students have sought … Continue reading
(Originally printed in the Summer 2005 Issue of the MCOI Journal Beginning on page 6) Part 2 in a 2-Part Look at Occultic-like Beliefs and Practices in the Church By John Ferrer Introduction In the last Journal article “Occultism in the Church” (Part-1),1 we surveyed what the occult is: how it represents a certain world view geared toward secret knowledge or power and being typically characterized by certain categories of practice. These practices include fortune … Continue reading
(Originally printed in the Spring 2005 Issue of the MCOI Journal beginning in page 6) John David Ferrer Part 1 in a 2-Part Look at Occultic-like Practices Within The Church and Modern Christianity “What’s wrong?” “I can’t let go of it, man.” “Let go of what?” “The occult, man. It won’t let go of me.” The conversation went from dark to black. My friend was talking with me on the phone about his struggle with … Continue reading
Writing to the Colossians in the First Century, the Apostle Paul warned about certain spiritual disciplines that had “the appearance of wisdom” (Colossians. 2:23) but, in fact, conflicted with sound biblical teaching and were very harmful to the Christian life. False teachers were in this case Gnostics, who crept into the church and claimed special “spiritual knowledge.” They gained influence in the church because what they were teaching felt “right” and “good” and oh so … Continue reading