TBC NewsWatch

PURPOSE-DRIVEN APOSTASY

WorldNetDaily, 1/15/2011: Rick Warren Hosts 'Cult' Celebrity Docs [Excerpts]—When megachurch pastor Rick Warren decided he needed to take his health seriously, he responded in typically ambitious fashion, launching a year-long health program for his church, "The Daniel Plan," written with the help of three celebrity doctors who will appear at a kickoff seminar today.

But critics point out the physicians who crafted the program apparently don't share the church's professed evangelical beliefs, espousing instead various forms of Eastern mysticism and the tenets of a Christian cult, Swedenborgism.

Vowing to lose 90 pounds, Warren said he placed himself under the care of Drs. Mehmet Oz, Daniel Amen and Mark Hyman last fall and worked with each to develop "The Daniel Plan."

Oz, host of the Emmy-winning "Dr. Oz Show" and professor of surgery at Columbia University, says he is inspired by Emanuel Swedenborg, an 18th century cult founder who taught that all religions lead to God and denied orthodox Christian beliefs such as the atonement of Christ for sin, the trinity and the deity of the Holy Spirit.

Best-selling author Amen, a professor of psychiatry at the University of California at Irvine, teaches Eastern religious meditation and the New Age energy-based practice of Reiki.

Hyman, a four-time New York Times best-selling author, promotes mystical meditation based on Buddhist principles.

Steve McConkey, who directs a website called Christian Investigator, called it "troubling for a top pastor in the United States to promote false teachers....We are living at an all-time low spiritually in the United States with weak leaders," he said.

Saddleback's staff did not respond to a WND request for comment.

McConkey pointed out the followers of what is called Swedenborgianism believe all religions lead to God and that Christianity must go through a rebirth. The group also denies the existence of a personal devil and believes the Bible is not inspired. When people die, the followers believe, they become an angel or an evil spirit. Emanuel Swedenborg said he had a vision in 1745 in which he saw creatures crawling on walls. He asserted God then appeared to him as a man and told him to promote the new teachings to the world.

The church says all of its more than 5,000 small groups will go through "The Daniel Plan," which is part of Saddleback's "Decade of Destiny," a 10-year plan launching this month "to help individuals succeed and be who God designed them to be in every aspect in life." Warren, author of the best-selling "The Purpose Driven Life," said he is "honored to be partnering with these internationally distinguished health experts."

"God says that health is important, and that is what we want to explore," Warren said. He saidthat the many Americans who resolve each year to lose weight and get fit need to have the right motivation if they want to succeed. "We hope to provide encouragement, based on biblical principles, to help people make a real lifestyle change toward better health," Warren said. The 52-week "Daniel Plan," according to Saddleback, is based upon the biblical account of Daniel and his three friends, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, who refused to take part in the Babylonian king's rich foods and wine and challenged the king's chief-of-staff to a test of meal plans.

[TBC: Although Warren is claiming that the "Daniel Plan" is based upon "biblical principles," why then is he having three doctors who espouse heathen beliefs administer the plan. That's akin to Nehemiah soliciting help from the Israelites' enemies, Sanballat the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite, and Geshem the Arab, to help rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. Warren has similarly turned to the false religions of the world to implement his Global P.E.A.C.E. Plan.]

NEW WORLD RELIGION

CNSNews.com, 1/14/2011: Catholic MD Explains Native American Prayer [Excerpts]—[The official] memorial service for the shooting victims in Tucson did not open with a prayer from a Jewish rabbi, a Protestant minister or a Catholic priest—it began with a Native American "blessing" that left many puzzled about what it meant and why it was performed. The prayer, which did not use the word "God" and did not make the traditional request for God's comfort for the bereaved that many might have expected, did mention the Creator and called for "honoring" the Seven Directions, including "Father Sky" and "Mother Earth"—and remembering our "fellow creatures" who "crawl and slither on the earth."

The blessing was presented by Dr. Carlos Gonzales, an associate professor at the University of Arizona College of Medicine.

"I was asked by the university [president] to give a traditional Native American blessing," Gonzales told CNSNews.com late Thursday....It's basically a recognition of the powers of the seven directions and how they influence human beings—and how each direction has a certain characteristic; that when you pray to that direction, you ask for the inspiration that comes from that direction."

Holding an eagle feather, the physician and professor began by introducing himself—at length.

"On my mother's side I am Mexican....On my father's side, I'm Yaqui, refugees from Mexico that escaped the genocide of the Pascua Yaqui in the 1800s. For myself, I am fifth generation in the valley of Tucson."

[Gonzales] asked for strength from "Father Sky," which he called the "masculine energy," and "Mother Earth," the "feminine energy."

"O Creator, may the two energies, the masculine energy and the feminine energy, come together in our center where the Creator exists..." he prayed.

...Gonzales explained the meaning behind what he was doing in the blessing: "The seven directions are basically the cardinal directions, Father Sky, which is up above us, and Mother Earth, which is down below us, and the seventh direction, which is the center, where the Creator exists," he told CNSNews.com. "The east is where the sun comes up [and] lights the path of the world, therefore the East is seen as having the power to guide us and to give us vision and to help us through as we walk on this earth."

"It's not truly a religion, it's more of a way of appreciating spirituality," Gonzales told CNSNews.com. "I'm Yaqui and Yaquis have been Roman Catholics since 1650. We were one of the first tribes in Mexico to actually peacefully absorb Catholicism; however we have always practiced Catholicism in our own unique manner, incorporating traditional beliefs, and so I grew up as a Roman Catholic with a Yaqui variation."

Gonzales, meanwhile, said the "Creator" he mentioned in the prayer is "whoever your particular denomination deems to be the important entity."

[TBC: Gonzales' "entity" is no different from that of the secular "Daniel Plan" MDs endorsed by Rick Warren, whose occult "enlightenment" also comes from the East. The political agenda for establishing a global nature-worshiping religion is abundantly clear. Romans chapter one foretells the consequences.]