Many of America’s most popular “evangelical” preachers are infatuated with Catholicism, as we have frequently documented. Consider Tim Keller, pastor of the Redeemer megachurch in New York City, head of the Redeemer City to City church planting network, and co-founder with D.A. Carson of The Gospel Coalition (council members include John Piper, Alistar Begg, Mark Dever, Moody Church pastor Erwin Lutzer, and Southern Baptists Russell Moore and Al Mohler). Keller has a huge influence by his writings via books and blogs, his books reaching the top 10 of the New York Times bestseller list even in an apostate age. His love for Catholicism is evident in his book The Reason for God (2012), in which he quotes and refers to Catholic theologians and philosophers frequently, passionately, and non-critically. He includes Roman Catholics and Greek Orthodox within his definition of true Christians. Referring to the Apostles, Nicene, Chalcedonian, and Athanasian creeds, he says, “For our purposes, I’ll define Christianity as the body of believers who assent to these great ecumenical creeds” (p. 117). In The Reason for God, Keller quotes Catholic philosopher Peter Kreeft, Catholic writer Mary Flannery O’Conner, Catholic mystic Simone Weil, Polish Catholic poet Czeslaw Milosz, and Catholic Archbishop Oscar Romero, whose doctrine Keller calls “orthodox” (p. 66). He also quotes from Malcolm Muggeridge, J.R.R. Tolkien, and G.K. Chesterton. Not one of these people hold to the one true gospel of grace alone without works. All of them trust in baptism and Rome’s sacraments for salvation. Not surprisingly, Keller promotes Catholic contemplative prayer. In 2009, his church taught “The Way of the Monk,” encouraging Catholic monastic practices such as lectio divinia, centering prayer, “silence,” the “prayer rope,” and the spiritual exercises of Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Jesuits. In his lecture series What Is Meditation? Keller promotes the contemplative prayer techniques of four Catholic “saints”: Loyola, Francis de Sales, John of the Cross, and Teresa of Avila. He says, “The best things that have been written are by Catholics during the Counter Reformation. Great stuff!” This lecture series was promoted on The Gospel Coalition website. (For more about this see Evangelicals and Contemplative Prayer, available as a free eBook and in print from Way of Life Literature.) (Friday Church News Notes, October 30, 2015, www.wayoflife.org, [email protected], 866-295-4143) Comments are closed.
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