Hare Krishna welcomes the apostate church

[TBC: The following article is written by a member of Hare Krishna and is included because it illustrates how the endtime apostasy is growing. It shows how evangelical churches are reshaping their beliefs as a result of the influence of heretics such as Rob Bell, Bishop Spong, and others who call themselves Christians and who insist that they are truly following the example of Jesus though they deny the Scriptures that testify of Him.]

Christian Tale of Woe…That Ends with Haribolo! [Excerpts. A Haribolo denotes chanting or songs of praise to Krishna]

During the summer the American Vedic Association of Ojai works closely with the Los Angeles ISKCON [Hare Krishna] temple to participate in the annual July 4th Independence Day parade.…In this way we meet our neighbors and attract new folks to the teaching of Lord Krishna as succinctly expressed in the 700 Sanskrit verses found in the Bhagavad Gita (The Song of God Scripture). What has been interesting is that often the Ojai Community Church also participates in this….On a few occasions Pastor Paul Bergmann came by and joined us with his kind words of support and appreciation for our big colorful parade float.

So in this way it was obvious that the Ojai Community Church, which initially invited me in and then immediately exiled me from the Men's Group many years ago, had matured with a refreshing new attitude about those who follow other traditions. This was possible because the way Pastor Paul closely examined his own evangelical tendencies and realized they were counterproductive to actually "Loving" his fellow man the way Jesus commanded.

"I give you a new commandment. Love one another as I have loved you, so you also should love one another" (John:13:34A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.
See All...). As Pastor Paul consciously evolved from how he described himself as a "Scary type of Christian" he soon discovered that he was not the only one trying to restore sanity to the teachings of Christ. He met Rob Bell and introduced a lot of his ideas into restructuring the Ojai Community Church to better embrace the future. Unfortunately, as is often the case whenever there is change, not everyone appreciates the new direction.

Pastor Paul wanted to lead the Ojai Valley Community Church in a new direction but it would come with costly consequences….Half of his congregation apparently didn't embrace this idea and they walked out and many marched right over to the Presbyterian Church where they must have felt right at home where their dogmatic understanding of Christianity would not be challenged.

On December 29, 2014 two sanyasi (learned celibate monks) came thru Ojai to visit with me and they asked what type of preaching opportunities might be available to do on that day. Since my appreciation of Pastor Paul Bergmann had grown over the years I half-jokingly suggested: "Well I sometimes go to a local church which has been very favorable to Krishna Consciousness. Would you like to do that?" I wasn't really expecting they would agree but to my surprise they did.

The next day we got all dressed up in our traditional Vaishnava dress including tilaka and bead-bags then drove off to church.

As we proceeded to walk towards the main hall we met the assistant minister Victoria. She stopped mid-stream in a conversation with someone else to greet us with a big smile. Almost immediately after we entered the sanctuary a few friends that I had met on other occasions came to greet us with big grins as well. One lady was so exhilarated that she hugged both of the swamis before I realized what was happening but they handled it tactfully. (It is simply not appropriate for sanyasis to associate alone with women or in particular touch them.)

Before too long Pastor Paul saw the activity going on and came over beaming while bellowing out how happy he was to see us there. The whole experience was wonderfully strange when you consider that fourteen years earlier at this same church I had been asked to leave. Except for the few who defended me, those Christians were not even comfortable accepting that my appreciation of Lord Christ was slightly different than theirs.

http://www.harekrsna.com/sun/editorials/01-15/editorials12483.htm

[TBC: We have previously addressed Rob Bell in the newsletter (See: http://www.thebereancall.org/content/question-are-you-familiar-rob-bells-book-love-wins)].