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The Bethel church is a true succes story...
When in the 1990's the Toronto Blessing
was sweaping across the world, Bottenbley exposed
this unbiblical trend. This gave him a national
reputation of a "Bible believing
Christian". His church quickly became
a place where Rootical Christians of different
denominational backgrounds found a place where
they would be able to have Spiritual fellowship.
Or so they thought...
The press picked up the story and Bottenbley
became a known guest in magazines and television
programms. The Bethel church got in touch with
Willow Creek and to make a long story short, they
seem to have now become the model church for
Europe when it comes to the Purpose Driven trade
mark.
Rick Warren, who calls himself "Rupert
Murdoch's Pastor", also has a success story.
His Saddleback Church exceeds 30,000 enlisted
members. Warren's book "The Purpose Driven
Life" generates millions of dollars for
Rupert Murdoch's media empire as churches all over
the world force their congregations to buy the
book and "Do 40 Days of Purpose"...
Rick Warren recently spoke about a "second
reformation", in which he announced his own
Purpose: a global network of Purpose Driven
churches all working together with the State and
Businesses world-wide in a "Global Peace
Plan" to create a new world order that will
bring about the second comming of "Jesus
Christ". We have reported
about this scary situation.
The Purpose Driven Process has alarmed many
"Bible believing" Christians world wide.
Denominational as well as non-denominational
Christians blow the whistle. This Transformation
of the churches into one global Purpose Driven
network serves a purpose. The purpose of a
"Global Peace" after which Jesus Christ
will return. According to Rick Warren, that
is.
What the Toronto Blessing couldn't do, Rick
Warren with his New Age and Televangelist
connections can. Orlando Bottenbley and his staff
do the best they can turn to the whole Bethel Church into the Purpose Driven
Paradigm. And they're quite succesfull. The Free
Baptist Bethel
Church in Drachten (Netherlands) is the role model
for the Global Purpose Driven Network in Europe.
It's truly... Europe's Own Saddleback Church.
Bottenbley himself is known to be a "Bible
believing" Christian. But as we will see in
this article, he didn't show much of that
yesterday when he activated the Sixth Step.
It couldn't be different. As the Eight Step program used to
transform churches into the Purpose Driven
Paradigm is carefully implemented, Step Six
would inevitably be next on the agenda
someday.
Why is this important? The Bethel Church in
Drachten leads the Purpose Driven Movement in the
Netherlands, and isn't called the "fastest
growing church in the Netherlands" for
nothing. And the connection with Rick Warren leads
way back, from before the time Rick Warren was
called "America's Pastor" by Time
Magazine.
Let's recall these eight steps. On a
website called Church Transitions, they're
listed:
As you can see, the eight step programme reads
like a manipulation manuel. Until the fourth step,
total secrecy is required in the process. Very carefully you
have to plant stuff with your key
leaders, and when you've done that you can
share (initiate) all members after which
you simply implement (do it).
Of course, when the fifth step is activated,
this is where the action begins. And there's a lot
of action in Drachten. The Bethel Church allready
has key leaders that continually go to
Willow Creek and Saddleback with a frequency
similar to that of Roman Bishops visiting the
Vatikan. They allways come back with material and
impressive success stories. The implementation of
the programms is in full swing.
The inevitable Sixth Step was activated january
30th, 2006. It was time to "deal with the
opposition". Away with the foundation, so
it seems. Rick
Warren is quoted in this context as saying:
But when you define the vision, you’re
choosing who leaves. You say, “But Rick,
they’re pillars of the church.” Now you know
what pillars are. Pillars are people who hold
things up.
There's something wrong with this statement. The
literal meaning of the word "Pastor" is
shepherd. Pastors are told to "feed
the flock of God which is among you". But
the above statement shows a shepherd that doesn't
even care about the sheep at all. When they hold
things up, you must choose that they leave.
Regardless of their identity as a sheep of the
flock of God which is among you.
Obviously we are very interested in witnessing
just how the Purpose Driven Movement "deals
with the opposition". We can read reports
from all over the world containing tragic stories
about true Christians who are forced to leave a
congregation where they have been all their life.
Rick Warren calls them "old
pillars"...
The Bethel church has not yet a name for them.
But they surely activated step six on January
30th, 2006. Members of the Bethel church were
invited on that monday evening to a presentation
entitled "Rick Warren... Where does the
critique come from?" Questions could be asked
as well.
Your's truly went to the evening and witnessed
with open mouth how the unbiblical reasonings, and
even untruths were poured out over the heads of
the believers who attended the evening. Displaying
that he didn't forget his psychology study,
Bottenbley did his best to convince the audience
how Rick Warren could never possibly be a false
teacher. But in the same time, he seems to have
forgotten some crucial elements of his theological
study as we will notice further on. Or did he
unwillingly show the big gap between the two
studies?
The evening itself was held in the Youth's
Quarters of the Bethel Complex, located in the
Industrial zone of Drachten. The small hall is
called (translated) "Nuff Space" but was
quickly filled with well over 150 people. It was
obvious, that the staff didn't expect that much
worried believers which was later confirmed as
Bottenbley said he only had expected about 50
people...
Not all people came because they were worried
about Rick Warren and his teachings, though. One
person, when asked what he thought about "the
critique from Bible believing Christians",
answered: "The question is: do we have to
look at it just like these Bible believing
Christians?" And it seems like there was
a "Rick Warren fanclub" as well,
cheering out loud from time to time as if they
were on a football game rather then a congregation
of concerned believers.
The evening was opened by Bottenbley. He told
the congregation that he was going to have a long
speech, after which questions could be asked. That
speech was long, indeed. By the time he was
finished, most people were exhausted.
The speech itself was very interesting.
Although it is very painfull to hear a "Bible
believing" Christian defending a system of
New Age apostacy, it was a revealing event.
Bottenbley started by saying that he personally
knew Rick Warren, as well as other major
figureheads in the Purpose Driven movement like
Willow Creek's Bill Hybels. He told the audience
how he had contact with Rick Warren even before
the man became famous. The connection is obviously
deep.
He then went on to paint a bad picture of the
opposition. He told stories how people received
"threats". And of course, he himself had
received threats. As he read one of the e-mails he
received, it became clear he considered biblically
based critique a "threat" as well. There
was nothing threatening in the e-mail, only a
strong warning against the obvious false teachings
of Rick Warren.
Bottenbley clearly set the tone when he read
that "threatening" e-mail. A part of the
audience was sincerely shocked as people heard how
their pastor was being told to believe what the
Bible says. That was threatening indeed... They
had all the understanding in the world, when he
went on to say: "Sometimes, I don't even read
that stuff anymore". We have to assume that
he's talking about the correspondence, here...
A lot of effort was put in painting a truly bad
picture of the opposition. In the Netherlands, the
two people best known for their critique on the
Purpose Driven Movement are writer Arie Geelhoed
and pastor van Berghem. Van Berghem has published
a paraphrased translation of Warren Smith's
outstanding book "Deceived on Purpose".
Bottenbley mentioned the book, and said:
Everything in this book is van Berghem parroting
Warren Smith". Subtle deception, given the
fact that is was intended to forward the message
of Warren Smith's book to the dutch reading
public.
According to Bottenbley, basically
"all" critique against Rick Warren comes
from Warren Smith. He did his best to paint Warren
Smith as a paranoid ex-new ager with a conspiracy
theory on a lonely mission. And to a Dutch
speaking audience that has never heard of the
Biblical research of James Sundquist or Noah
Hutchings, such a thing is easily said. But is it
true? English reading people know very well this
is not the case. And the critique on the Purpose
Driven Movement doesn't come from one particular
side either.
James Sundquist, who wrote the book "Who's
Driving The Purpose Driven Church", told the
author of this article he was surprised by this
statement of Bottenbley. He responded:
I am a good friend of Warren Smith's we pray
together and support each other's ministry. His
book complements mine. But there is another
great book that just came out opposing Rick
Warren by Pastor Bob DeWaay entitled Redefining
Christianity. He is also a colleague of mine.
So the pastor you refer to is wrong
because there are a number of pastors,
ministries and authors throughout the world who
are opposing Rick Warren, including Dr. John
MacArthur, who exposed Warren in a chapter in
his book called Fool's Gold. Dave Hunt,
Jacob Prasch (UK), Richard Bennett, Perry
Rockwood (Canada's oldest Christian national
radio ministry), Roger Oakland, David Cloud,
Dusty Peterson (UK wrote documentary exposing
the Alpha Course), Cecil Andrews (TakeHeed
Ministries in Ireland), Despatch Magazine in
Australia, Ken Ham (Answers in Genesis), Loren
Davis (well known Evangelist in Africa), Richard
Bennett (Berean Beacon and former Roman Catholic
priest), Dr. Noah Huthings & Dr. Larry
Spargimino of Southwest Radio Church (America's
longest running Christian radio national
program), and a host of others listed
in my book and online, have all come out
against Purpose Driven nightmare.
In the last few years I have been a guest on
about 1,000 radio stations on the following and
related topics. So there are many
Christian radio stations who have given me a
platform to come out against Warren's teachings.
I have also documented true accounts of
Christians throughout the U.S. and Canada who
have been purpose-driven from their churches for
opposing Rick Warren's teachings and programs
and/or who have refused to sign Warrenite
covenants.
So much for the statement that it's only Warren
Smith doing it. But it was one of the strongest
points in the defense of Rick Warren.
There was more said about Warren Smith. Rick
Warren reportedly told Bottenbley personally that he had
tried many times to get in contact with Warren
Smith to "talk it over". Not in public,
of course... As if it was a personal problem
between two people.
Repeatly, Bottenbley spoke about the critics as
"negative" and said things like
"they're only critisizing". But is that
the standard according to which Christians are
encouraged to judge by? The Bible states in Psalm
53:
God looked down from heaven upon the children
of men, to see if there were [any] that did
understand, that did seek God. Every one of them
is gone back: they are altogether become
filthy; [there is] none that doeth good,
no, not one. (Psalm
53:2-3)
And so, it is obvious that it is only true how
there is none that doeth good. It is something to
consider. It shows the possibility that man can do
things which are not good. It is because of this
truth, that Jesus has commanded all kinds of
things for His church to prevent what can best be
described as church-fascism.
Rick Warren's connections with Robert Schuller
came up. These connections have been well covered
on many websites and also in the book Deceived on
Purpose. It was very revealing, to hear Bottenbley
defend Robert Schuller.
Robert
Schuller is interviewed for the New Age Unity
Church. In that interview, he clearly identified
himself as a self conscious New Ager:
Q: Dr. Schuller, we hear a lot of talk these
days about the New Age, the Age of Aquarius, the
type of New Age thinking that we are involved in
with Holistic healing and various other things
that are part of what is called the New Age.
Will you describe the role of what you might
consider the New Age minister in the '80s and
beyond?
A:Well, I think it depends upon where you're
working. I believe that the responsibility in
this Age is to positivize religion. Now this
probably doesn't have much bearing to you
people, being Unity people, you're positive. But
I talk a great deal to groups that are not
positive... even to what we would call
Fundamentalists who deal constantly with words
like sin, salvation, repentance, guilt, that
sort of thing. So when I'm dealing with these
people... what we have to do is positivize the
words that have classically only had a negative
interpretation. (from an address
at Unity Village, Unity tape)
Given the fact that Bottenbley is considered in
the Netherlands to be an ikon of "Bible
believing Christianity", it is at least
strange to note how he has no problem with Robert
Schuller, a man who so clearly identifies himself
as a "New Age minister", indirectly
teaching his own church how to be
"positive".
Schuller openly says that Fundamentalist are
"not positive". After all, they "deal
constantly with words like sin, salvation,
repentance, guilt, that sort of thing."
Take into consideration, that Fundamentalist
Christians are the same as "Bible
Believing" Christians. Just
recently, the press had this to say about Rick
Warren:
Warren predicts that fundamentalism, of all
varieties, will be "one of the big
enemies of the 21st century."
"Muslim fundamentalism, Christian
fundamentalism, Jewish fundamentalism,
secular fundamentalism - they're all motivated
by fear. Fear of each other."
It is not so difficult to see what's going on
with Purpose Driven. Step by step, churches are
being transformed for the New Age. And it has now
come to the point that an ikon of "Bible
believing" christians in the Netherlands
leads "the fastest growing Church in the
Netherlands" straight into to arms such
people as Warren and Schuller with an obvious New
World Order agenda.
Bottenbley knows who Schuller is, but he tried
to minimize Schuller's influence by trying to make
it so that Rick Warren "only" appeared
on Schuller's seminars every now and then.
However, Rick Warrens wife Kay said
in Christianity Today:
During his last year in seminary, he and Kay
drove west to visit Robert Schuller's Institute
for Church Growth. "We had a very stony
ride out to the conference," she says,
because such nontraditional ministry scared her
to death. Schuller, though, won them over.
"He had a profound influence on Rick,"
Kay says. "We were captivated by his
positive appeal to nonbelievers. I never looked
back."
The "profound influence" of Robert
Schuller on Rick Warren is evident for people who
know the teachings of both men. Warren Smith has
documented this in his book Deceived on Purpose.
He has exposed how Rick Warren even quotes Robert
Schuller without mentioning him. A profound
influence indeed. Talking about
"parroting"...
But it gets worse.
As Bottenbley mentioned how Rick Warren's marketing
research came from Robert Schuller, he said there
was nothing wrong about it. While the Bible says
not to "walk in the counsil of the
ungodly" (Psalm 1:1), Bottenbley literally
said in this context: "Christians are too
arrogant".
It was like listening to a New Age rant against
"Christian fundamentalism".
"Christians shouldn't be so arrogant",
Bottenbley said, while refering to unchristian
roots of Rick Warren's marketing research. Was
this the same man that exposed the Toronto
Blessing, the same that is known to be a
"Bible believing" Christian?
Conspiracy theorists are known for their
emphasis on symbols and rituals as ultimate proof
of a Satanic conspiracy. Usually, they're not
brought forward as argumentation in favor of a
certain organization. But in the case of Rick
Warren, this was done.
Bottenbley spoke about the times he was at Rick
Warren's Saddleback Church. He was, in his own
words, "very impressed". In an attempt
to convince people about the very Christian nature
of Saddleback, he pointed out to a monument of
three crosses and a ritual in the church services
where people did something with a physical cross.
A strange argument...
Talking about conspiracy theories, the question
was asked if Hybels, Warren and Schuller are
Freemasons. Bottenbley answered that he
"felt" Hybels and Warren were not. And
he didn't speak about Schuller.
He did speak about another man, though. A man
called Ken Blanchard. Ken
Blanchard is a New Ager who runs a
"non-profit ministry" called "Lead
Like Jesus". And as he spoke on Ken
Blanchard, Bottenbley revealed that he was more
into a New Age kind of thinking then he would ever
care to admit.
Who is Ken Blanchard? Bottenbley called him one
of the "biggest names in Christian
Leadership". He denied that Blanchard is a
New Ager and said that his staff contacted Willow
Creek and Rick Warren directly when the word came
out on Ken Blanchard. According to Bottenbley,
Blanchard is "a christian for
years".
There has been a lot of controversy around Ken
Blanchard's close connection with Rick Warren. The
Dutch media reported on the controversy when
several Christians in the Netherlands sounded the
alarm on the man.
When Bottenbley defined the critique on
Blanchard, he revealed his own new Age inspired
philosophy. According to Bottenbley, Ken Blanchard
had written a foreword in a Buddhist book in which
he says that Christians can learn principals of
Jesus' Leadership by looking to the Buddhists. And
according to Bottenbley, Ken Blanchard was
absolutely right and don't you dare call that New
Age....
Bottenbley also mentioned how they had been in
contact with Willow Creek and Rick Warren about
the fact that Ken Blanchard was wearing a Ying
Yang sign. They had confirmed to him that indeed
Ken Blanchard did do such a thing, but that is was
just a sign of the fact that "Brother Ken
still has to learn a lot of things". But this
is the same man that is called "one of the
biggest names in Christian Leadership" by
Orlando Bottenbley...
Orlando Bottenbley himself is considered to be
one of the biggest names in Christian Ledership in
the Netherlands, and in Europe. His succesful
Bethel church project is widely covered in the
press. Together with Rick Warren and Ken
Blanchard, he starred at a Willow Creek "Leadership
Conference" where also Dutch Prime
minister Jan Peter Balkenende gave acte d'
presence.
There's no turning back, so it seems...
This became even more evidently as the evening
continued and congregation was given time to ask
questions. A lot of these "questions"
were expressions of approval
with Rick Warren. They were accepted with a smile
on the face of the pastor, who didn't really
answer any one the more critical questions.
When the question came up if the Church of
Jesus Christ has to work with the United Nations
for a Global Peace which will bring the return of
Jesus Christ, Bottenbley clearly said:
"no". But when Rick Warren's Global
Peace Plan was described to comment on the
question, Bottenbley simply re-stated Rick
Warren's philosophy.
This is particulary strange, because Rick
Warren's dominionist Theology that basically
states the Christian Church has to create a New
World Order to bring about the return of Jesus
Christ is in clear contradiction with Bottenbley's
own statements concerning the end times. Just
recently, he was even critisized in the newspapers
for saying that the end was near.
In this time, we see the Mystery of Iniquity
unfolding as the world gets ready for the New Age.
What seemed impossible ten years ago, is now
commonly accepted. An ikon of Fundamentalist
Christians in the Netherlands embracing a writer
who has declared war on that very same
Fundamentalist or Rootical or "Bible
Believing" Christians.
We just witnessed it.
It truly seems, there is no turning back.
Bottenbley stated, "We are well on
course".
On January 30th, 2006, Step Six was
activated.
We'll keep you informed.
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