NOTE: In this post I will be heavily referencing this article by Marcia Montenegro. I strongly recommend reading it at some point, either before or after this one.

“Occult mysticism has penetrated to the heart of mainstream American Christianity”

Throughout the last few posts, I’ve been discussing the corruption of the modern church by introduction of the occult. Most churchmen do not recognize this, because the occult has been dressed up in Christian language to make it seem innocuous and orthodox. In Part 1, we saw how Tim Keller—nominally Protestant—gave his allegiance to Marxists, mystics, and Roman Catholics largely without his flock noticing. One way this can be seen is how he was able to quietly repackage Marxism by calling it the Christian work ethic.

For some time, I’ve been attending the ValleyPoint Church. During the Covid Era, the church closed its doors at the behest of its government masters, letting everyone know who its true master was. During that time, I started attending another church that remained faithful. But I’ve never officially changed churches, attending both of them over the last few years.

I’ve been out of the area virtually the entire summer, whether in another country, state, or county, I have not attended church in a while. Part of me felt a little pang of conscience for skipping church, until this past Sunday when I went to ValleyPoint Church and heard this heresy preached from the pulpit by Joseph B. Modica:

Those who read this blog know that over the last few weeks there has been a convergence of topics on this blog. Whether the discussion was mutual submission, scriptural inspiration, mysticism, sectarianism, the mark of the beast, eschatology, justification by faith, the Eucharist, prophecy, or the recent political discussions, everything has come to a head: a recognition of the war between Christ and his church and the ruler of this world, Satan.

Unbeknownst to me, not only was I—and my family!—supposed to have been missing the last seven weeks of church, but I had been being prepared for this sermon series for the last few months, attending church only when I was finally ready to address it without being deceived.

As for my readers, the purpose here is to address what reader Malcolm Reynolds has been implying: that the occult influences in the modern church are overblown and nothing more than an unfounded “Satanic Panic.” In this post I will demonstrate, conclusively, why this is not the case.

John Mark Comer is a former megachurch pastor of Bridgetown Church, Portland, Oregon. He stepped down from that church to found a movement entitled “Practicing the Way” which is the name of his book on the subject. To briefly summarize, it is part of the spiritual discipline movement, which, like all mysticism, has its roots in the occult.

Through the series at my church they have been discussing and advocating Comer’s movement, which includes nine key disciplines:

Sabbath
Solitude/Silence
Prayer
Fasting
Scripture
Community
Generosity
Service
Witness

Do these sound familiar to you? Variations on this theme are pretty common.

But first, I’ll let Brad East, a Roman Catholic writing for Christianity Today, explain as he heaps praise on Comer (emphasis added):

Marcia Montenegro concurs:

She also notes that Comer approves of Rob Bell, M. Robert Mulholland (A Contemplative with Buddhist influences), Jr., Kallistos Ware, Dan Allender, and David G. Benner (Contemplative Perennialist).

This is similar to what we found with Tim Keller in Part 1. Both Keller and Comer approvingly cite mystics and Roman Catholics, often both together. Comer is much more brazen about it.

Now let’s talk about “Practicing the Way.” Did you notice that it is made up of nine disciplines? Did you notice that symbol he uses:

What is the significance of this? The Enneagram wheel:

Notice the nine points. Do you recall what we said in Part 1?

What does a scientifically dubious personality test have to do with the occult? The answer, rather simply, is that it has the same thing to do with the occult that astrology does. I didn’t believe it at first, but that was before I looked into it and saw for myself.

The Gospel Coalition explains the Enneagram (emphasis added):

The associations of the Enneagram with occult spirituality is pretty unambiguous. And, like other astrological methods, it has no basis in rational reality (i.e. it isn’t statistically valid). But, it’s spiritual so that makes it okay, I guess?

This is, interestingly, not all that different from Yoga. Take something steeped in the occult and dress it up in an innocuous form for consumption by American Christian audiences (in that case, mostly women).

The origin of the Enneagram is both occult and Roman Catholic. But, like Yoga, the Gospel Coalition can’t quite put its finger on what might be wrong with it—as if the origin isn’t enough—and ultimately concludes that it’s up to each Christian to decide whether it is good or not.

This is curious, because while scripture did promote discernment for many things, it didn’t leave false messiahs, false prophets, and false gospels up to discernment (for those keeping score at home, that means you don’t incorporate other religions). To its credit, it does end with this warning:

Well, that was a big setup. Now let’s read what Comer himself wrote here (emphasis added):

Does this send shivers down your spine?

Comer cites Franciscan friar Richard Rohr, one of the chief proponents of the Enneagram. You can read more about him and the heresy of Perennialism here. The Bible does not define sin as something that blocks one from achieving your “authentic potential.” Christianity is not about “self-discovery.” These are occult, new age concepts. This mystical new-age mumbo-jumbo nonsense is, frankly, not hidden at all. Notice too the emphasis on emotions.

All that stuff about the “shadow side” (and the reference to Pete Scazzero) is integral to the Ennagram and is part of the language of astrology. It comes from Carl Jung.

Comer, having redefined sin, is teaching a false gospel. And our churches just eat this stuff up.

As regular readers of this blog are aware, the antichrist arose in the late 4th century with the establishment of the papacy and the rise of Roman Catholicism. Notice that Comer identifies the use of the occult by the “…followers of Jesus … for over a millennia and a half…” That is a truth mixed with a lie.

Comer—like Ed Hurst of Radix Fidem and this blog’s commentarian Malcolm Reynolds—differentiates the Western Christian from the true Christian (what Comer calls the “Apprentice,” his translation for the word ‘disciple’). They both emphasize how so-called Western modes of rational thought are incomplete and can never help one achieve a higher spiritual success. To wit (emphasis added):

God chose to communicate with us in words, and he told us to communicate with him using words in prayer. He taught us nothing else and neither did the Apostles. Recall what I said in “Sigma Frame Has Fallen:”

How different this is from those who seek mystical experiences!

At its core, mysticism is revealed to be discontent with the ways that God himself established for his relationship with his people. Having primed themselves for disappointment with mere words (and thoughts in the mind) and being disillusioned by the “limitations” of scripture, they become enamored with mystical experiences, roped in by the powerful emotional impact that such contact with spiritual forces brings. The deception is so very alluring to one who longs for it. Mystics crave experience like an addict craves another hit (and, unsurprisingly, drugs are often used to enter alternate spiritual states).

This is what Jack means when he says that truth is sentient and not a matter of proposition.

This is what Ed Hurst means when he differentiates between the heart and mind. The mind cannot comprehend what is in the heart, for the heart is beyond words. Hurst attempts to manufacture greater experiences (and “covering”) by creating a community centered around Jesus as Feudal Lord in an Ancient Near East context.

By contrast (emphasis added):

The Word of God stands supreme.

During the sermon, Joseph B. Modica cited from the book “Unchristian” by Kinnaman and Lyons. Here is a partial transcript from around the 43:00 to 45:00 minute mark.

Imagine a Christian who takes seriously the Great Commission as their primary purpose. Or imagine a Christian who takes seriously Jesus’ teaching on human sexuality. What a judgmental, hypocritical, political, and sheltered person that must be! Such a person surely stands against pursuing one’s “authentic self.” Right?

You can just hear Modica’s seething hatred and judgment of conservative Christians in this paraphrase: “Of course, I’m sure none of those hateful things apply to anyone here. Hint. Hint. It’s just fringe nutcases who believe that!” It’s a not-so-subtle “If you think homosexuality is a sin, you are not welcome here,” which is ironic considering that a key point of the sermon was that Christians should be welcoming to all kinds of people (see minute 51:00).

The irony, of course, is that the anti-Christian far left is extremely hypocritical, political, and judgmental. They absolutely hate anyone who holds to Christian sexual ethics or other “old fashioned” moral standards, and they’ll try to convert you by force or try to get you fired from your job if you get in their way. It would be more accurate to say that those 400+ people who don’t “identify” as Christian are projecting.

Are you surprised that a person pushing “Christian” mysticism doesn’t respect the Word of God and engages in propaganda indoctrination?

You will know them by their fruit.

On Monday we showed (here) how occult mysticism has penetrated one small online virtual Christian community. On Tuesday, we saw (here) how it corrupted one Red Pill Manosphere blog. But these were just small fish. On Wednesday, we started (here) the discussion of how this occult mysticism has penetrated to the heart of mainstream American Christianity. Today we finished it. On Friday (here), we will revisit Radix Fidem’s—and Sigma Frame’s—unbiblical division of the heart and mind and the discover the reasons for the attacks on using your mind.

Works in this series:

“The Occult in the Mainstream Church, Part 1”
“The Occult in the Mainstream Church, Part 2” (this article)
“The Occult in the Mainstream Church, Part 3”
“The Occult in the Mainstream Church, Part 4“