My Concluding Comments on Anatomy of MiracleThis series on interactions had been and continues to be about the book Anatomy of a Miracle, by James B. Richards
In my last response I said the following:
“It is oblivious to me that you are a very intelligent and gifted person, I cannot argue you into altering your teaching nor should I as you and I both must answer to God alone. I would however recommend that you research the concepts you teach from the point of view of the new age teachers I have mentioned and listed resources quoted on my equippers tool box blog http://equippersnetwork.blogspot.com review of your material on this subject. I believe this will protect you and enlighten you as to how these concepts are used by those who do not hold Jesus to be the Messiah use and teach these concepts. The end result is that you would be able to avoid communicating in a way that would hinder your stated goals to me and others. One of the great risk you take when you teach these ideas to those who know nothing about the new age or Gnostic teaching is that they become open to the ideas and may fall prey to New Age teaching that uses the same terminology. Not everyone is as well educated and intelligent as you are or able to discern between what you say your intent is and your content is and a new age writer/teacher who's intent is different and points away from Christ not toward him.”
My additional concern is that when you use quotes from Chinese Philosophers and non-biblical sources without pointing out that the Biblical material is on a different level of truth your non-Christian reader may assume that they are equal and that they have no need of Christ or the that the Bible does require them to come to Christ alone for real Spiritual truth.
The above are Just a few suggestions for you.
These are my concluding remarks. I still strongly believe what I have said about these teachings based on personal experience and study, I would prefer to agree to disagree and leave the matter at that for now as I do not see us coming to any type of theological agreement concerning your Anatomy of a Miracle teachings.
I might also add that success in ministry at one point in your life or over a period of time does not mean that everything we believe to be Biblical enlightenment is. This includes methodology as well as content. We must guard our hearts and those we teach from those things that take others away from the truth of God’s Word. This is even more true when we feel we have a certain out of the box anointing to do things differently in order to reach people.
Sincerely
Equipper
2 comments:
Wayne:
This has been a very good series of posts representing your dialogue with Richards. The concern I have with Richards is as you have stated below, plus the fact that he never outright denies that he got his ideas from new age teachings. He states that he is teaching biblical truth and restates his ministry successes, but he never really directly denies that new age resources have been source material for him.
If someone was suggesting that I was using such resources I would directly deny it, directly deny my knowledge of the content of the resources cited, and then proceed with scriptural support for my position on which I was criticized. But he never actually denies using such source material.
Additionally, the book presents the idea that miracles are available irrespective of your belief in Jesus, Budda, Mohammend, etc. Miracles are simply natural laws of the universe waiting to be manifest as your mind lines up with a certain way of thinking. How can he present the content of the book as truth and the content of the Bible as truth at the same time? It is one thing to say he will never depart from absolute truth and another to say what he said in the book and in the seminar. Jim is a very convincing person in his writing and in his public teaching.......it is there that my great concern lies, my concern that he opens doors to lies and the demonic. However, his theology makes no room for these open doors. He believes everything in Christianity is about knowledge.
Great job and great courage to you!!
Thank you Wayne,
I bought this book at a church in Denver that hosted Jims last set of local meetings. The pastor and Staff gave me 2 other books by Jim as a thank you gift that same night. As we left the meeting the worship leader said "John, I expect you to read this book (Anatomy of a Miricle) before the meeting on Wednesday". I received that as an assignment so I read it and made notes in the book over the next 2 days and brought it back to the church office. The pastor did call me and invite me to the meetings but I decided not to go because of the errors I saw in the book.
I hope the pastor I returned the book to read my notes but I am not sure he did. It is so easy to get just a little bit off track and then after you walk off course for a few miles you end up at the wrong place. I love the pastor here in Denver, he is an anointed Man of God. I pray he will see through Jim Richards the way you have.
After I read the first book in 2 days I went through the first part of the other 2 books the church gave us. I only got past the first couple chapters in each book before I was clear that there were major problems with them also. I made notes in them, wrote a long letter to the pastor and returned those books to the church also.
I am so glad you took the time and energy to record your concerns and interactions about this book on your bolg. I responded in a private and personal way to the pastor but having you respond in a public forum is great.
I also am finished talking about this specific book and author. One phrase Jim mentioned in the second response is not having time to get derailed. Perhaps getting derailed is a good thing if you are on the wrong track.
Thank you,
John C
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