The
quest for unity appeals to Christians and
non-Christians alike. To churches, it sounds Biblical. To contemporary globalists,
it seems to fit the UN vision of "a culture of peace." It is shaping a church that will extend a hand of fellowship to anyone - except those who resist.
We
may not notice it at first, since most evangelical networks show an indisputable commitment
to the true gospel in their mission statements. As Jesus warned, the outward similarities
between wheat and tares makes it almost impossible to separate the two. So it's not
surprising that an increasing number of faithful Christians been deceived by sincere
visionaries with similar goals but different beliefs. As a result, many
advocates for interfaith unity and religious pluralism have infiltrated God's churches
and, step by step, turned their focus from His truth to a social agenda.
[See
Conforming the Church to the New Millennium]
Few
illustrate this undercurrent of spiritual compromise better than
Jay
Gary, Senior Associate with
The World Network of
Religious Futurists and an influential member of the
World Future
Society. [Other associates include occult author
Barbara
Marx Hubbard] He joined the faculty at Pat Robertson's
Regent University School of Leadership Studies faculty in 2003, and he
serves as an adjunct professor in its M.A. program in Strategic Foresight.
Though relatively few Christians
recognize his name, Gary has become a forceful leader in today’s vast and vital
effort to evangelize the world for the Christ he envisions. From 1978 to 1982, he
helped develop
the Perspectives Study Program, a nationwide lay mission study effort which "touched
more than 5000 students a year.”
From 1982 to 1986, he served as executive editor for
World
Christian magazine. Next, he worked as a research consultant to the Worldwide Student
NetWork, Campus Crusade for Christ’s year 2000 program to reach college students
around the world. He coordinated the AD 2000 [directed by Luis Bush] Global Service
office in Colorado
Springs, and some years ago, he called himself a “Congress Planner with the
Lausanne movement.”
In his article, "Welcome
to the Christian Futures Network," he describes his ministry:
"By
1980, my interest in the world mission of the church led me to help start the Perspectives
study program, popular today among evangelicals worldwide. By the mid-'80s, I began a term
of service for the Lausanne movement, a network of Christian leaders which Billy Graham
founded. I helped develop the national younger leaders strategy, culminating in Leadership
'88. At that time a great anticipation of A.D. 2000 swept over the church. I remember Dr.
David Barrett, editor of the World Christian Encyclopedia, telling me that this
millennial enthusiasm had no promise apart from futures research...
"Since
the fall of 1995, I have had the privilege of being active with the World Network of
Religious Futurist, first as a speaker and now as an officer. The roots of a
"Christian Futures" node of this network go back to its inception in the early
'80s, when the Joint Strategy and Action Group of the National Council of Churches hosted
a "Religious Futurists Network."
"...In
February of 1997, Todd [Johnson] and I launched the Christian Futurist electronic
conference. Since then we have enlisted various professional members of the World Future
Society to serve as mentors to this network: including Dr. David Barrett, editor,
World
Christian Encyclopedia, Rev. Gary Clark, Holy Spirit Renewal Ministries, American
Baptist Churches, Dr. Tom Sine, author of The Mustard Seed Conspiracy and Dr. Bill
O'Brien, author of Choosing a Future for U.S. Missions."
http://www.wnrf.org/networks/christian.htm
To
many Christians, Jay
Gary seemed to be a tireless soldier for
Christ, compelled by one essential purpose: to share the gospel in every corner
of the world. His credentials as a sincere servant of God seemed beyond reproach.
But
why would he join forces with the interfaith World Network of Religious Futurists? Or with
Robert Muller, the former under-secretary of the United Nations, whose spiritual tutors
include former Buddhist UN leader U Thant
and Alice Bailey, a
theosophical channeler who received her occult teachings from her spirit guide, the
Tibetan Master Djwhal
Khul?
The World Goodwill Newsletter (date)
published
by Lucis (formerly Lucifer) Press, which was founded by Foster and Alice Bailey, offers a
clue. It describes BEGIN, the global networking organization founded and directed by Jay
Gary, and endorses the relationship between Gary and Muller:
"In a letter to World Goodwill, BEGIN
Executive Director Jay E. Gary writes: “One common project we are developing is an
‘International Year of Thanksgiving’ in 2000, especially through the United Nations.
Dr. Robert Muller has given leadership to this proposal."
On the first page of his
Bimillennial
Research Report (March-April 1992), Gary gave an uncritical endorsement of Robert
Muller. He also announced the coming “World Parliament of Religions” and approved
the UN vision of a global civilization:
"United Nations Proclamation.
In his
latest book, The Birth of a Global Civilization, former Assistant
Secretary-General, Robert Muller, proposes the United Nations proclaim the Year 2000 as an
International Year of Thanksgiving, preceded by 'unprecedented thinking, action, and
determination to solve our remaining problems in order to enter the third millennium with
a clean slate.'
Gary’s Bimillennial Research
Report closes with a booklist and order form. The recommended books include Muller’s
The
Birth of a Global Civilization, Isaac Asimov’s The March of the Millennia,
and
Global Responsibility by Hans Kung, the German theologian responsible for
drafting a global ethics statement at the 1993 Parliament of World
Religions.
Apparently Jay Gary’s goals match
those of Robert Muller. No doubt, his endorsement of Robert Muller has
opened some high-level Christian doors to the New Age global agenda. World evangelization
is no new phenomenon to Muller, who has been persuading world leaders for decades to
follow a more unifying spiritual path. According to Lucis Press’ World Goodwill Newsletter...
"In 1978 Robert Muller and Margaret
Mead challenged the people of the world to prepare for the year 2000 by a 'worldwide
collaborative process of unparalleled thinking, education and planning for a just and
sustainable human world order.' ...[An] international team of scholars have designed the
project as a creative response to what they refer to as 'six compelling essentials': a
New Sense of Power; Transcultural Dialogue; Citizen Participation; a Global Forum; a
Holistic Perspective; a Spiritual Renaissance; environmental security; Economic Security;
and Disarmament.”
Emphasis added
6
As Eugene
Peterson, author of The Message, affirmed in his article, “Spirit
Quest” (Christianity Today,
11-8-93), a renewed yearning for
spiritual experience marks this final decade of the twentieth century. But many
of the spiritual highways that beckon people today have little
in common with genuine Christianity.
When Robert Muller talks about a
“Spiritual Renaissance,” he doesn’t mean a Christian revival. He is referring to a
world religion that will join all people and nations under the benevolent reign
of spiritually wise UN leaders. He envisions a world of spiritual beings evolving
through reincarnation and fulfilling the law of karma - doctrines
he learned from spirit guide Djwhal Khul and Buddhist monk U Thant, former head of the United Nations. Like
Al
Gore and others who call themselves
Christians, he bases his view of the future on Teillard de Chardin’s teaching about
man’s spiritual evolution toward an Omega point of perfect unity.
So
does Jay Gary. In "The
Future of Religion FAQ," he tells us that "Father
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, S.J., a Jesuit, mystic and paleontologist... famously
postulated the emergence of the noosphere, the evolution of the whole human race toward 'Point
Omega.' He saw the Christification of matter itself in the evolution of cosmos towards
Godhead."
The
same WNRF document gives answers to some interesting questions.
In the excerpts below, notice how Biblical truth mingle with an interfaith idealism. Some
parts sound almost like UNESCO's
Declaration on the role of religion in a Culture of Peace. This
dialectic blend resembles the serpents temptation in the garden of Eden: a bit of truth
mixed with horrendous lies that alter the entire context of God's message of hope:
"Scholars,
theologians and historians of religion, such as John Hick, Houston Smith... or
Hans Kung
help us understand that religion and our interpretation of religion is a tradition of
change." (p.3)
"Scholars
in the field of comparative religion are of similar mind in regards to social
evolution -- that God is bringing the human race toward a greater peace, harmony,
and happiness."(p. 5)
"We
aim to form ourselves as deeply as possible in humble love, on the path of holiness, in
conformity with divine revelation, in response to God's intent to build better civilizations."
(p. 5)
"To
be human is to be in relationship. This is relational ontology [the science of Being],
where being is love. To be human is not to be "individual [separate] but to be a
person, a being-in-relationship.' ...The aim of organization is to build a team,
a divinely inspired group...."(p.
5-6)
"...religious
leaders can learn to use the Delphi method. Its use can bring
heightened awareness of the significance of emerging science and new
technology."(p. 7)
"What
is the logic of 'advancing the future of religion' beyond one's own tradition? It is the
logic of love; the logic of Total quality Management--the logic of continuous improvement."(p.
11)31
Unlike Jay Gary, Muller has everything
to gain and nothing to lose by his alliance with Christian evangelists. His occult beliefs
can easily assimilate other gods and conform them to his occult world view. Churches can't make similar compromises without rejecting the uniqueness of
Christ and losing their true identity. We had better heed God’s warning in
2 Corinthians 6:14-18,
"Do not be bound together with
unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness... or what has a believer in
common with an unbeliever? Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are
the temple of the living God; just as God said,
“I will dwell in them and walk
among them; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. Therefore come out from
their midst and be separate, “says the Lord, “and do not touch what is unclean, and I
will welcome you."
Next:
Part 4 - The Open Church
Home
- Part 1 - Part 2
- The Changing Church
31.
The
Future of Religion FAQ, pages 3, 5-7, 11. Additional
quotes:
"Reaching
beyond one's own tradition is not leaving it, but enriching it; it is joining a bigger
family--the family of world-religious scholars.... Mystics such as Vivekananda...
pointed out that to be inspired by this realization is not to abandon one's own tradition;
it is to dig deeper roots in one' own tradition. (11)
"No,
religious futurists are not working toward a one-world religion, or a one-world
church. We work to raise the 'collective theological I.Q.' of all religions."
"The
WNRF "exists as a leadership development ministry to advance the future of
religion by empowering people to think creatively and critically about the future of
society, and to reinvent their ministry in light of those new contexts.... WNRF aims
to activate, through he convocation of community of religious scholars from all
traditions, the civic energies of young, older and all other ages of people from all
lands, who care about helping religion to evolve towards a greater instrument of
peace, justice, healing, and sustainable life...." (12)