Bethel Redding Singer Amanda Lindsey Cook’s Jesus as “Enlightened Master”?

“Happy Good Friday everyone. I never know how to greet people on this day….a day we mark as a moment in time when the Enlightened Master seemed to descend into shadows” [Amanda Lindsey Cook, Her Facebook page, 4/19/19.]

Enlightened Master?

Bethel Redding worship leader Cook is a gifted singer/songwriter, and her music can be heard in churches around the world. After an interview with the Christian Post to promote her latest album, Cook drew attention for her strange comments about God–so strange, in fact, that Holly Pivec (co-author of two books on the New Apostolic Reformation), wrote: “In light of this interview, I believe churches should reconsider their use of her music and any other music coming from Bethel Church (or elsewhere) that is written by songwriters with such a woefully deficient view of God” (http://www.spiritoferror.org/2019/06/behind-the-music-the-baffling-views-about-god-held-by-bethel-musics-amanda-lindsey-cook/8435).

In her article, Pivec noted some of the puzzling statements Cook made about God during  the Christian Post interview:

“I love this divine essence that we so commonly refer to as God. I think it becomes this common, almost familiar thing that it has connotations because we basically impose our belief system on whatever we think God is when we say the word ‘God.’”

“I love the names that this essence and this divine presence gives itself. In the Old Testament, where God describes themselves as ‘I am,’ also the name Yahweh, ‘the intake and the exhale of breath.’”

“It’s this common acknowledgment, this communal aspect of living, where we’re all connected, we’re all part of the common thread … to be connected at the source to this divine presence, this Christ consciousness…” My concern grew as I discovered she addressed Christ as the “Enlightened Master” in her Facebook post on Good Friday.

Who or what can enlighten God? Why would she use such a term?

Amanda Lindsey Cook has been in Bethel Redding for a number of years now. Is it possible her new age term for Jesus, “Enlightened Master,” and these other strange comments about God are the result of exposure to Bethel Redding teaching and to the deception of contemplative prayer?

https://thewordlikefire.wordpress.com/2019/06/24/bethel-redding-singer-amanda-lindsey-cooks-jesus-as-enlightened-master/