“For
there is one God, and one
Mediator between God and man,
the man Christ Jesus.”
1 Timothy
2:5.
“Let us be
convinced that all is well and
right when the superior commends
it, ‘wrote Loyola…
Ignatius himself wrote in his
letter to the Portuguese Jesuits:
‘We must see black as white,
if the church says so.”
–Ignatius Loyola, quoted in
Paris, Secret History of the
Jesuits, p. 26.
Renovare
Spiritual Formation Bible Teaches
that there is a Human Mediation;
Indeed It Sees This Human Aspect
as The
Mediation
Listen to this
from the Renovare Spiritual
Formation Bible: “A second
thing we learn is why there
must be a human, or mediated,
side to God’s relationship
to us.” (RSFB, p.
4). The fundamental tenet of
Protestantism is that there is
One Mediator between God
and man, and no human
mediator, such as a priest or
Spiritual Director. This Renovare
Spiritual Formation Bible seeks
to establish human
tradition.
RSFP Bible
Teaches Necessity of Mediated
Outward Forms
Listen to the Renovare
Spiritual Formation Bible:
“Earthy institutions are
needed to enable God to be
present among us even when, from
the merely human point of view,
he appears absent. God’s
presence on earth in mediated,
outward forms is necessary because
of the human condition.”
(Renovare Spiritual Formation
Bible, p. 4) (emphasis ours).
This is the fundamental Roman
Catholicism, pure and simple.
This is why Rome has
confessionals, great cathedrals,
and images and processions, and
celebrations. The Waldenses
refused to worship in buildings
made by human hands in protest
against this feature of Roman
Catholicism.
The
teaching of the necessity of
human-mediated outward forms is
most emphatically
not Quakerism it is Romanism.
This test can easily and quickly
be applied to see what religion
is driving the Renovare movement.
Through a global,
organized system of Spiritual
Directors-confessors, operated by
the Sisters of Mercy out of
Burlingame, California, Rome is
now receiving intelligence from
throughout Protestantism.
The
Transformation of Quakerism
Quakerism
Began as a Reaction Against All
Outward Forms in Religion
Quakerism began as
a reaction against outward
forms of religion, and an
emphasis on the inner life of
experience with Christ and the
Holy Spirit. Rejecting all
outward forms, it relied on the
“Inner Light.” Its
members even dispensed with a
formal service. Rather, they sat
silent in the pews waiting the
arrival of the Holy Spirit. When
one felt moved upon by the Spirit
he would speak openly and freely.
“They worshipped without a
set liturgy or prearrangement of
any kind, and without any
appointed minister, believing
that God would use any one of the
worshippers, man or woman, as
minister.” (Oxford
Dictionary of the Christian
Church, art. “Friends,
Religions Society of.”)
Trembling
At the Word
Quakers were
called Quakers, because George
Fox, its founder, bade Justice
Bennet in 1650 to tremble at the
word of the Lord. (Oxford
dictionary of the Christian
Church art. “Quakers”).
Quakers also used the term
because of the spiritual
trembling they sometimes
experienced in the meetings. They
were also called Shakers.
The Inner
Light and Early America
Quakers in early
America were often wealthy
businessmen, who would buy
African slaves at the slave
market for the purpose of setting
them free. They often served as a
mediating force in warfare,
because of their opposition to
military service. “Their
central doctrine is the
“Inner Light;’ it
presence of the Divine and direct
working of Christ in the soul, by
which men is freed from sin,
united with Christ and enabled to
perform good works; its visible
effects are mostly of a moral
character, simplicity, purity,
and truthfulness. From the
paramount importance given, the
Inner Light derives the rejection
of the Sacraments, the ministry
and all set forms of worship.
Quakers do, however, firmly
believe in a spiritual baptism
and a spiritual communion.”
(Oxford Dictionary of the
Christian Church, art.
“Friends.”)
Penn and
Freedom of Conscience
To the Quaker
William Penn, we owe the roots of
the First Amendment of the United
States Constitution regarding
freedom of conscience:
“Congress shall make no law
respecting an establishment of
religion, or prohibiting the free
exercise thereof.”
Penn’s famous trial, where
he conducted his own defense and
appealed to Sir Edward Coke,
Britain’s greatest jurist,
in Coke’s commentary on
Magna Carta, established the
right of freedom of Conscience,
later adopted into the US
Constitution.
Splits in
Quakerism
Various splits
occurred in Quakerism; among
which was a major one in
1827-1828 as a result of the
teaching of Elias Hicks
“whose emphasis on
‘Christ within’ seemed
to set aside the authority of
Scripture and the historic
Christ.” (Oxford,
“Friends.”) More splits
kept coming. By the nineteenth
century, Quakers began adopting a
pre-arranged form of service with
hymns and a sermon.
Quakerism
Succumbs to New Age
Quakerism in
recent times has become heavily
infected with New Age teaching.
Today’s
Quakerism Has Become a Mighty,
Fine-Edged Tool of the Jesuit
Order, Turned Inside Out
Today, Quakerism
under the leadership of Richard
Foster, head of the Renovare, has
become the fine-edged tool of the
Jesuit Order to introduce Jesuit
Spiritual Formation into all of
Protestantism. Today’s
Quakerism is now teaching the
necessity of the outward
forms-the Disciplines-the very
opposite of what it stood for
when it begun.
William
Penn Would Have Been Horrified,
for He Opposed “the Romish
Whore”
William Penn would
have been horrified if he were to
have seen what would become of
Quakerism. Penn’s Quakerism
was vitally concerned about
victory over the sin in his tract
Protestants in general-“The
Sun is gone down over you, and
Your Day is turned into thick
Darkness.” Penn opposed
Papists in his tract. “Truth
Exalted” describing the
“Romish whore who sits upon
the scarlet colored beast full of
Names of Blasphemy, drunk with
the blood of saints.”
Walking By
Faith As In the Visible Presence
of God
“Where two or
three are gathered together in My
name, there am I in the midst of
them.”
We Walk By
Faith as In the Visible Presence
of God
The truth is that
we walk by faith and not
by sight. We walk as if in the
visible presence of God by faith.
God said to Abraham, “I
am the Almighty God, walk before
Me and be thou perfect.”
Genesis 17:1. This is Abraham, in
the Patriarchal age.
“The pure in
heart live as in the visible
presence of God during the time
He apportions them in the
world.” Mar 88.
“The
Christian pilgrim is not left to
walk in darkness. Jesus leads the
way. Those who follow Him walk in
the sunshine of His presence. The
path the pilgrim treads is clear
and well defined. Christ’s
righteousness goes before him-the
righteousness that makes possible
the good works characterizing the
life of every true Christian. God
is his rearward. He walks in the
light as Christ is in the
light.” RC 235.
The Soul
Rejoices As In the Visible
Presence of Christ
“Faith must
center in the word of God, which
is spirit and life. Every page of
the sacred word is illumined with
the beams of the Sun of
Righteousness. The word of God is
to be the support of the
afflicted, the comfort of the
persecuted. God Himself speaks
to the believing, trusting soul;
for God’s Spirit is in the
word, and a special blessing will
be received by those who accept
the words of God when illuminated
to their mind by the Holy Spirit.
It is thus that the believer
eats of Christ, the Bread of
Life. Truth is seen in a new
light, and the soul
rejoices as in the visible
presence of Christ.”
ST 10-3-95.
Church services
are to be conducted as if in the
visible presence of God:
“All the
services should be conducted with
solemnity and awe, as if
in the visible presence of the
Master of assemblies.”
5T 492.
“When the
benediction is pronounced, all
should still be quiet, as if
fearful of losing the peace of
Christ. Let all pass out without
jostling or loud talking, feeling
that they are in the presence of
God, that His eye is resting upon
them, and that they must
act as in His visible presence.”
5T 493-494.
The Holy
Spirit is An Equivalent for
Christ’s Visible Presence
“Jesus had
assured them that he would send
the Comforter, as an
equivalent for his visible
presence.” 3
SP 256.
Renovare
Teaches Reliance On Earthly
Institutions
Renovare ignores
this great truth, and teaches
reliance upon sight, upon earthly
institutions.
Renovare
continues: “The
human condition is such that earthly
institutions serve as constant
necessary points of reference to
God without his being
directly present to us.” (p.
5). (Emphasis mine)
Renovare
Declared Immediate Presence of
the Infinite God Not Enough
Jesus declared,
“Lo, I am with you always,
even unto the end of the
world.” Matthew 28:30. Not
so, declares Renovare:
“We also learn from the
Biblical record that our
finitude and limitation cannot be
successfully overcome by the
immediate presence of the
infinite God.”
(Renovare Spiritual Formation
Bible, p. 5.)
Unbroken
Communication
What does the pen
of Inspiration tell us?
“Christ has provided means
whereby our whole life
may be an unbroken communion with
Himself; but the sense
of Christ’s abiding presence
can come only through living
faith….” HP 56.
“Henceforth
through the Spirit, Christ was to
abide continually
in the hearts of the children. Their
union with Him was closer than
when He was personally with them.”
FLB 62.
“Unceasing
prayer is the unbroken union of
the soul with God, so that life
from God flows into our life; and
from our life, purity and
holiness flow back to God.”
SC 97.
“Those whose
hearts and open to receive the
support and blessing of God, will
walk in a holier atmosphere that
that of earth, and will have constant
communion with
God.” ST 12-16-89.
The whole effort
of the Renovare Spiritual
Formation Bible is to seek to
convince the reader that he
cannot have an unbroken communion
with Christ and the Father, but
must depend upon human
institutions, props, and
disciplines, such as spiritual
exercises.
