You are currently browsing the ERIC METAXAS category.
Biblical Resources:
Eric Metaxas’ Testimony Promotes His Yale Education, Catholicism, New Age and Jungian Thought. Let me just start off with there are so many things that throw red flags up in this testimony, obviously and subtly. I won’t address them all, but if you are biblically discerned, by God’s grace, and interested in noting everything, you will catch them, after you watch it about a half dozen times, like I did. I’ll just take a look at some things here. For example, how ironic that Metaxas starts off with, “We’re talking about reality here…” and then moves to talking about dreams. He dreamed that God confirmed that Eric accepted Christ because God used Eric’s OWN SYMBOLS SYSTEM to “one up him” to “blow his mind.” WHOA! That God showed Eric, in his dream, that Eric accepted Christ, in his collective unconsciousness which talks to his collect consciousness (Jungian). Secondly, it isn’t biblical to say we “accepted Christ.” It is we sinners who have been in rebellion toward God and need to repent and be accepted by Him. We “receive Christ,” in the words of the apostle Paul, as in we receive the free gift of salvation by God’s grace through faith in Christ alone. It is not the notion of accepting Christ that constitutes salvation. That mentally or emotionally agreeing, mental ascent, to what Christ has done, His ministry, death, burial and resurrection to the right hand of the Father is not saving faith! It is setting Him apart in our hearts, a convicting and regenerating work of the Holy Spirit, that enables us to repent and believe the gospel after the Lord shows us our sinfulness by His grace. When this happens, you know it! There is no question about it. And you don’t need a dream to confirm it. In fact, that is unbiblical. Thirdly, confusion with Eric was noted when he said “something happened.” Again, there is no question or confusion when Christ reveals Himself to a lost sinner. It was “pain,” not sin, that made him consider praying to God with his friend. This would be praying for a felt need rather than repenting for sin. Fourthly, his testimony is not only full of New Age teaching which he literally dreamed up, but it is blasphemous and spews arrogance and idolatry! He depicts Christ as a goldfish, rather a “golden fish” (would that be like a golden calf?) which he pulled by the tail out of a lake, breaking through the ice to “inert water,” which he claimed represented his collective unconsciousness (Jungian).
Where was the gospel in this testimony? It was never mentioned. The Bible and the terms of the gospel (Lk 9:23-26, Mk 1:15; Jn 14:15), the narrow Gate that leads to the narrow path to life/salvation (Mt 7:13-14), the only Way to the Father, JESUS (Jn 14:6), what God has set in place for being born again, were never mentioned. Metaxas claims he found Christ through the New Age, that occultic Jung, who communicated with spirits, lead him there and that God confirmed this to Eric in a dream where God used Eric’s symbols. Big red flag! Lots of ‘em! We do not find Christ, or have assurance of our salvation, by any other means other than the Bible (Rom 1:16; 10:17; 1 Jn 5:13) and with the words of Paul again, by the “Holy Spirit testifying to our spirit,” not to what psychoanalyst Carl Jung calls the “collective conscious” or “collective unconsciousness.” Metaxas is dangerously broadening the Bible’s definition of what it means to be truly born again.
He describes his testimony with New Age terms like “energy force,” “collective unconsciousness (Jungian),” “New Age Eastern force,” “cosmic energy force,” “connects us all together,” “not old-fashioned like a man with a beard on a cloud or Jesus.” YIKES!!!!! His testimony is one of many others directed and produced by Redeemer Presbyterian Church, pastored by Tim Keller, in NYC, every one of these testimonies widening the narrow door. Eric’s testimony comes complete with New Age animation and sounds by Chaos Theory Music.
This is a classic example of a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Whether he realizes it or not, he is deceived by the false teachings of the New Age/New Thought and Psychology Movement coupled with his own pride and arrogance. He did make a true, biblical statement, which many wolves do. Specifically, Eric commented about following Christ, even if it means to suffer for Him and to consider it joy, but then quickly turned to New Age false teaching covered with a ‘Christian’ veneer by mixing in biblical terminology. I don’t believe he’ll be experiencing any of the suffering for Christ that he mentioned because he doesn’t progress and defend the True Gospel, the faith that was handed down to the saints, once for all (Jude 1: 3). Instead he is promoting his books, the New Age, his Yale education and Bonhoeffer as a sound, biblical theologian, which he is not.
Metaxas is promoted and endorsed by Mormon Glenn Beck and purpose-driven, seeker-sensitive, ecumenical Rick Warren. That should tell us something in and of itself! In the interview, Metaxas says proudly that Bonhoeffer is a “Barthian,” as if this is a good thing. Karl Barth was endorsed and promoted by Roman Catholic Pope Pius XII as being as great a theologian as Thomas Aquinas, who was a pagan Catholic that taught mysticism and contemplative prayer. 
Dr. Gary Gilley’s Takes on Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Apprising Ministries Gathers HERETICAL Quotes on Bonhoeffer
Tim Challies’ Book Review- He Liked It! HUGH!? Bonhoeffer is heretical! Just a word of caution, I have noted this review(s) by Challies to be more in regards to literary style and application rather than biblical discernment, while criticizing on-line discernment ministries, or “watchbloggers.” Tim does have some really good reviews that cling to examining writings with the Scripture, which I am thankful for and have used on this site. Personally, I highly favor Dr. Gary Gilley’s consistent work for Berean-style, biblical book reviews where he addresses and focuses on examining heresy, to be of utmost helpfulness to the brethren, rather than literary style and application, per se.
I say be careful about anything Metaxas writes, in lieu of his testimony, especially if it relates to Christianity. It will because this is a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
Brethren, beware!
UPDATE (12-087-10): Eric Metaxas is one of the founders for Geneva School of Manhattan, NY. Not sure how involved he still is with this school. I would imagine very much so, especially since he has a daughter in attendance there. It is the mentor school for another classical, Christian school called, Geneva School of Boerne, TX (GSB). Basically, the same name, same idea, different location. The headmaster at the latter school is very much involved with Metaxas, promoting him and his books. How do I know this? Our kids attend this school. GSB has invited Eric Metaxas to be the keynote speaker at their Mars Hill conference, January 16-17, 2011.
Since we have children at GSB [by the way, we have already had to discuss and petition getting Harry Potter out of the school library with the headmaster, last summer, in accordance with Dt 18:9-14] and, now, are witnessing further unraveling of contradictions to Scripture at GSB with Eric Metaxas while being told that GSB is modeled after his school in NYC, I have tried to have further dialogue with GSB, but have seen no opening of eyes or ears, no changes, no repentance, as of yet. I tried to reach and encourage them with the gospel, in love (Eph 4:15), and to inform the headmaster that Bonhoeffer is a book promoting a liberal theologian who denied the deity of Christ. He eventually shut down our chat being sure to defend Metaxas with, “In his book, Eric seeks to set the record straight.” But before he did he took the time to mention his “four years of seminary,” (btw, when someone brings up their education, then you’ve struck a nerve). However, he would not give an answer when directly asked, “Are your sure that if you died today, you would go to heaven?” According to 1 Pt 3:15, we are to be prepared to give an answer. For one who belongs to Christ, there is not another opportunity that holds greater joy than testifying to saving faith in our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Who would not want to share their faith in Christ, especially when given such an easy opportunity to do so?
I discerned last summer, by God’s grace, that something was wrong for Harry Potter to be at this Christian school, not to mention that I saw errors in their Statement of Faith, which I discussed with them, with deep concern, but again, to no avail. I introduced them to the biblical work of Marcia Montenegro of Christian Answers for the New Age and Mike Gendron of Proclaiming the Gospel while requesting a follow up meeting after this two hour meeting, which occurred just prior to the start of the school year. Needless to say, I was avoided from then on. The follow-up meeting never occurred. I would mention my interest to do so, but that was never reciprocated. In fact, I felt avoided by them with a clear distancing and abrupt change toward rude reception from one staff member, in particular, who was not even at the meeting. Forgiveness extended to all, by the grace of God.
With further demonstrations of continuing to be contrary to Scripture with promoting school contributor/founder Eric Metaxas, as well as other issues like being ecumenical with Catholics, promoting The Message and seeker-sensitive, ecumenical, contemplative Max Lucado, which are most of the major concerns there, I can see clearly what eventually transpired was something the Lord wanted me to find out, which wouldn’t have happened if we left the school during the summer. I understand that my assignment was much more than just discovering and addressing Harry Potter being in the library for the children. My prayers for them will continue that what they claim as a school, “Soli Deo Gloria” will indeed be the case as they seek to be pleasing to God in all respects (Col 1:10).
UPDATE II (12-21-10): Our family has realized, by God’s faithful correction in our own lives, which got us out of the seeker-sensitive, church-growth, watered-down false gospel of Ed Young Jr’s church and Max Lucado’s church (same), that The Geneva School of Boerne (GSB) had more of a problem than we had previously understood with the Harry Potter book, a book of fantasy with remarkable occultic teaching, being offered in the their school library. We discovered as the school year continued that this school was not the “Christian” school that we thought it was, just like those churches were not the “Christian” churches we thought they were. We discovered that GSB was founded on false teaching that is in the church, particularly the liberal, social and ecumenical with Catholics false gospels based on what they teach, who they endorse and who played a part in founding the Geneva Schools of Manhattan and Boerne. Thus, our family, believing that we are continuing to apply the Lord’s correction in our lives, while walking in faith to be pleasing to Him (Col 1:10), has made arrangements to leave the school promptly, without any requests for refunds of tuition, over this situation, as we did not want money to gain the attention. Rather, we want the problems that we have discerned and addressed with GSB, by God’s grace and Truth, to prayerfully be the focal point without any distractions that would compromise such attention toward being corrected and repentant by God’s grace.
This is the e-mail I sent to the headmaster, both principals, the children’s teachers and room moms. Our last day of school was this past Friday, December 17, 2010. The Lord has made provisions for our family which included providing an agreed contract on a home and guaranteed placement in lieu of that contract, in their new schools just hours before the schools closed for the Christmas break. Personally, we would rather move closer to our church family, a good, sound, biblical church, praise the Lord, which we had been planning, and have our children attend a small town school that doesn’t claim to be “Christian” while promoting false teaching in the Body of Christ, as GSB does, while we, their parents, teach, train and prepare them to not be shocked by errors, or worldly trends, but confidently and biblically refute the error and worldly trends, like evolution or the vampire phenomenon, for example, in public schools, which is one of the biblical skills they will need to learn to do for themselves one day (1 Cor 5:9-13).
“To Whom It Concerns:
This Friday, December 17th., will be the last day of school for our *Family at Geneva School TX. Today and tomorrow, they will be bringing their belongings home. Our children do not have the ability to grasp the situation at hand and have been parentally instructed to not speak of this matter at school. We would appreciate no questions being asked of them. In fact, we have told them that if anyone does ask questions, which they have told us is happening, to refer people to ask their parents instead or go to http://thebereanlibrary.com. This e-mail is intended to serve in explaining our situation while eliminating any inaccuracies that may occur on campus.
We have been planning a move for our family to be closer to our church family since last summer. Last September after confirming that Harry Potter (HP), as well as other books I noted that promote magic or false teaching, was being offered in the school library, we began the search for property in that area. We considered taking the kids out then, but when told per the handbook and office staff, that moving 50 miles away didn’t constitute a refund of tuition, we decided to keep the kids at Geneva and just see how things would go as we continued to plan on eventually moving. In light of the unraveling of a lack of biblical discernment, conviction and promotion of false teaching at Geneva that goes beyond the condition of the library, we realize, by God’s grace and Word, that the timing of such a move needs to occur before finishing the school year at Geneva.
Any addressing of this critical issue needs to be done so publicly for all remaining families. Our family will no longer attempt private meetings at this juncture, as there have been a number of discussions and meetings already, in person as well as e-mails. These occurred with the *headmaster, *the principals and *some teachers, without appropriate, God-pleasing measures taken for biblical reasons in which Scripture instructs all believers, which is to be pleasing to the Lord, obeying His commands. The reason given for why HP was eventually removed was because the *grammar principal said, ‘It wasn’t worth the trouble to have it here as there are families like you who feel the way you do.’
We plead with your for your repentance (2 Cor 5:20) and pray for the contradictions to Scripture to be corrected by the grace of God, as Geneva professes to be a “Christian” school with a “biblical worldview.” Some families have even stated that Geneva is more of a church to them than their own church.” Wow! One can clearly recognize and know the responsibility involved in being leaders and teachers who claim to be Christian (Js 3:1) while projecting the intention and accuracy of teaching truth, which is God’s Word only (Jn 17:17).
For more information, please visit my biblical expose at The Berean Library. Thank you.
With Love in Christ, Prayer and Deep Concern for All Families Involved.”
This is the e-mail I received in return from the headmaster:
“I think this is for the best. We clearly do not see eye to eye on a number of important matters.
I had hoped to meet with you and *your husband after the break to discuss some important issues. With your leaving, it is perhaps best to leave matters alone. However, I do wish to inform you that I have been made aware of slanderous comments you have made about me and the school in your blog. Please, stop the slander and misquotes and remove the statements about me. Also, please remove the Mars Hill Poster as you have used it without permission.
I hope your move goes well and that you will find a suitable place for your daughters.”
In response to his e-mail, I wrote:
“No statements or context of my involvement with Geneva and attempts to help the school on my blog are slander and to indicate is bearing false witness. The quote was a c/p from e-mail and used in context. Any info on the internet is covered by the Fair Use Act. If you do not wish to have your link on my blog, you may wish to consider removing this page from the GBS website. Thank you.”
* names removed
Lots of prayers and sadness for Eric and these schools, but thanking and trusting God, in all things, for His glory, as we seek to be pleasing to Him.
-Karla Tadler
Biblical Resources:
Eric Metaxas’ Testimony Promotes His Yale Education, Catholicism, New Age and Jungian Thought. Let me just start off with there are so many things that throw red flags up in this testimony, obviously and subtly. I won’t address them all, but if you are biblically discerned, by God’s grace, and interested in noting everything, you will catch them, after you watch it about a half dozen times, like I did. I’ll just take a look at some things here. For example, how ironic that Metaxas starts off with, “We’re talking about reality here…” and then moves to talking about dreams. He dreamed that God confirmed that Eric accepted Christ because God used Eric’s OWN SYMBOLS SYSTEM to “one up him” to “blow his mind.” WHOA! That God showed Eric, in his dream, that Eric accepted Christ, in his collective unconsciousness which talks to his collect consciousness (Jungian). Secondly, it isn’t biblical to say we “accepted Christ.” It is we sinners who have been in rebellion toward God and need to repent and be accepted by Him. We “receive Christ,” in the words of the apostle Paul, as in we receive the free gift of salvation by God’s grace through faith in Christ alone. It is not the notion of accepting Christ that constitutes salvation. That mentally or emotionally agreeing, mental ascent, to what Christ has done, His ministry, death, burial and resurrection to the right hand of the Father is not saving faith! It is setting Him apart in our hearts, a convicting and regenerating work of the Holy Spirit, that enables us to repent and believe the gospel after the Lord shows us our sinfulness by His grace. When this happens, you know it! There is no question about it. And you don’t need a dream to confirm it. In fact, that is unbiblical. Thirdly, confusion with Eric was noted when he said “something happened.” Again, there is no question or confusion when Christ reveals Himself to a lost sinner. It was “pain,” not sin, that made him consider praying to God with his friend. This would be praying for a felt need rather than repenting for sin. Fourthly, his testimony is not only full of New Age teaching which he literally dreamed up, but it is blasphemous and spews arrogance and idolatry! He depicts Christ as a goldfish, rather a “golden fish” (would that be like a golden calf?) which he pulled by the tail out of a lake, breaking through the ice to “inert water,” which he claimed represented his collective unconsciousness (Jungian).
Where was the gospel in this testimony? It was never mentioned. The Bible and the terms of the gospel (Lk 9:23-26, Mk 1:15; Jn 14:15), the narrow Gate that leads to the narrow path to life/salvation (Mt 7:13-14), the only Way to the Father, JESUS (Jn 14:6), what God has set in place for being born again, were never mentioned. Metaxas claims he found Christ through the New Age, that occultic Jung, who communicated with spirits, lead him there and that God confirmed this to Eric in a dream where God used Eric’s symbols. Big red flag! Lots of ‘em! We do not find Christ, or have assurance of our salvation, by any other means other than the Bible (Rom 1:16; Rom 10:17; 1 Jn 5:13) and with the words of Paul again, by the “Holy Spirit testifying to our spirit,” (Rom 8:16). Not to what psychoanalyst Carl Jung calls the “collective conscious” or “collective unconsciousness.” Metaxas is dangerously broadening the Bible’s definition of what it means to be truly born again.
He describes his testimony with New Age terms like “energy force,” “collective unconsciousness (Jungian),” “New Age Eastern force,” “cosmic energy force,” “connects us all together,” “not old-fashioned like a man with a beard on a cloud or Jesus.” YIKES!!!!! His testimony is one of many others directed and produced by Redeemer Presbyterian Church, pastored by Tim Keller, in NYC, every one of these testimonies widening the narrow door. Eric’s testimony comes complete with New Age animation and sounds by Chaos Theory Music.
This is a classic example of a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Whether he realizes it or not, he is deceived by the false teachings of the New Age/New Thought and Psychology Movement coupled with his own pride and arrogance. He did make a true, biblical statement, which many wolves do. Specifically, Eric commented about following Christ, even if it means to suffer for Him and to consider it joy, but then quickly turned to New Age false teaching covered with a ‘Christian’ veneer by mixing in biblical terminology. I don’t believe he’ll be experiencing any of the suffering for Christ that he mentioned because he doesn’t progress and defend the True Gospel, the faith that was handed down to the saints, once for all (Jude 1: 3). Instead he is promoting his books, the New Age, his Yale education and Bonhoeffer as a sound, biblical theologian, which he is not.
Metaxas is promoted and endorsed by Mormon Glenn Beck and purpose-driven, seeker-sensitive, ecumenical Rick Warren. That should tell us something in and of itself! In the interview, Metaxas says proudly that Bonhoeffer is a “Barthian,” as if this is a good thing. Karl Barth was endorsed and promoted by Roman Catholic Pope Pius XII as being as great a theologian as Thomas Aquinas, who was a pagan Catholic that taught mysticism and contemplative prayer.
Dr. Gary Gilley’s Take on Dietrich Bonhoeffer who purports sacramental regeneration in The Cost of Discipleship
Apprising Ministries Gathers HERETICAL Quotes on Bonhoeffer who doubted the virgin birth and resurrection and denied Christ’s sinless life and deity in The Cost of Discipleship
Tim Challies’ Book Review- He Liked It! HUGH!? Bonhoeffer is heretical! Just a word of caution, I have noted this review(s) by Challies to be more in regards to literary style and application rather than biblical discernment, while criticizing on-line discernment ministries, or “watchbloggers.” Tim does have some really good reviews that cling to examining writings with the Scripture, which I am thankful for and have used on this site. Personally, I highly favor Dr. Gary Gilley’s consistent work for Berean-style, biblical book reviews where he addresses and focuses on examining heresy, to be of utmost helpfulness to the brethren, rather than literary style and application, per se.
In the love of Christ and sisterly concern for His people, I say be careful about anything Metaxas writes, in lieu of his testimony, especially if it relates to Christianity. It will because this is a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
Brethren, beware!
UPDATE (12-087-10): Eric Metaxas is one of the founders for Geneva School of Manhattan, NY. Not sure how involved he still is with this school. I would imagine very much so, especially since he has a daughter in attendance there. It is the mentor school for another classical, Christian school called, Geneva School of Boerne, TX (GSB). Basically, the same name, same idea, different location. The headmaster at the latter school is very much involved with Metaxas, promoting him and his books. How do I know this? Our kids attend this school. GSB has invited Eric Metaxas to be the keynote speaker at their Mars Hill conference, January 16-17, 2011.
Since we have children at GSB [by the way, we have already had to discuss and petition getting Harry Potter out of the school library with the headmaster, last summer, in accordance with Dt 18:9-14] and, now, are witnessing further unraveling of contradictions to Scripture at GSB with Eric Metaxas while being told that GSB is modeled after his school in NYC, I have tried to have further dialogue with GSB, but have seen no opening of eyes or ears, no changes, no repentance, as of yet. I tried to reach and encourage them with the gospel, in love (Eph 4:15), and to inform the headmaster that Bonhoeffer is a book promoting a liberal theologian who denied the deity of Christ. He eventually shut down our chat being sure to defend Metaxas with, “In his book, Eric seeks to set the record straight.” But before he did he took the time to mention his “four years of seminary,” (btw, when someone brings up their education, then you’ve struck a nerve). However, he would not give an answer when directly asked, “Are your sure that if you died today, you would go to heaven?” According to 1 Pt 3:15, we are to be prepared to give an answer. For one who belongs to Christ, there is not another opportunity that holds greater joy than testifying to saving faith in our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Who would not want to share their faith in Christ, especially when given such an easy opportunity to do so?
I discerned last summer, by God’s grace, that something was wrong for Harry Potter to be at this Christian school, not to mention that I saw errors in their Statement of Faith, which I discussed with them, with deep concern, but again, to no avail. I introduced them to the biblical work of Marcia Montenegro of Christian Answers for the New Age and Mike Gendron of Proclaiming the Gospel while requesting a follow up meeting after this two hour meeting, which occurred just prior to the start of the school year. Needless to say, I was avoided from then on. The follow-up meeting never occurred. I would mention my interest to do so, but that was never reciprocated. In fact, I felt avoided by them with a clear distancing and abrupt change toward rude reception from one staff member, in particular, who was not even at the meeting. Forgiveness extended to all, by the grace of God.
With further demonstrations of continuing to be contrary to Scripture with promoting school contributor/founder Eric Metaxas, as well as other issues like being ecumenical with Catholics, promoting The Message and seeker-sensitive, ecumenical, contemplative Max Lucado, which are most of the major concerns there, I can see clearly what eventually transpired was something the Lord wanted me to find out, which wouldn’t have happened if we left the school during the summer. I understand that my assignment was much more than just discovering and addressing Harry Potter being in the library for the children. My prayers for them will continue that what they claim as a school, “Soli Deo Gloria” will indeed be the case as they seek to be pleasing to God in all respects (Col 1:10).
UPDATE II (12-21-10): Our family has realized, by God’s faithful correction in our own lives, which got us out of the seeker-sensitive, church-growth, watered-down false gospel of Ed Young Jr’s church and Max Lucado’s church (same), that The Geneva School of Boerne (GSB) had more of a problem than we had previously understood with the Harry Potter book, a book of fantasy with remarkable occultic teaching, being offered in the their school library. We discovered as the school year continued that this school was not the “Christian” school that we thought it was, just like those churches were not the “Christian” churches we thought they were. We discovered that GSB was founded on false teaching that is in the church, particularly the liberal, social and ecumenical with Catholics false gospels based on what they teach, who they endorse and who played a part in founding the Geneva Schools of Manhattan and Boerne. Thus, our family, believing that we are continuing to apply the Lord’s correction in our lives, while walking in faith to be pleasing to Him (Col 1:10), has made arrangements to leave the school promptly, without any requests for refunds of tuition, over this situation, as we did not want money to gain the attention. Rather, we want the problems that we have discerned and addressed with GSB, by God’s grace and Truth, to prayerfully be the focal point without any distractions that would compromise such attention toward being corrected and repentant by God’s grace.
This is the e-mail I sent to the headmaster, both principals, the children’s teachers and room moms. Our last day of school was this past Friday, December 17, 2010. The Lord has made provisions for our family which included providing an agreed contract on a home and guaranteed placement in lieu of that contract, in their new schools just hours before the schools closed for the Christmas break. Personally, we would rather move closer to our church family, a good, sound, biblical church, praise the Lord, which we had been planning, and have our children attend a small town school that doesn’t claim to be “Christian” while promoting false teaching in the Body of Christ, as GSB does, while we, their parents, teach, train and prepare them to not be shocked by errors, or worldly trends, but confidently and biblically refute the error and worldly trends, like evolution or the vampire phenomenon, for example, in public schools, which is one of the biblical skills they will need to learn to do for themselves one day (1 Cor 5:9-13).
“To Whom It Concerns:
This Friday, December 17th., will be the last day of school for our *Family at Geneva School TX. Today and tomorrow, they will be bringing their belongings home. Our children do not have the ability to grasp the situation at hand and have been parentally instructed to not speak of this matter at school. We would appreciate no questions being asked of them. In fact, we have told them that if anyone does ask questions, which they have told us is happening, to refer people to ask their parents instead or go to http://thebereanlibrary.com. This e-mail is intended to serve in explaining our situation while eliminating any inaccuracies that may occur on campus.
We have been planning a move for our family to be closer to our church family since last summer. Last September after confirming that Harry Potter (HP), as well as other books I noted that promote magic or false teaching, was being offered in the school library, we began the search for property in that area. We considered taking the kids out then, but when told per the handbook and office staff, that moving 50 miles away didn’t constitute a refund of tuition, we decided to keep the kids at Geneva and just see how things would go as we continued to plan on eventually moving. In light of the unraveling of a lack of biblical discernment, conviction and promotion of false teaching at Geneva that goes beyond the condition of the library, we realize, by God’s grace and Word, that the timing of such a move needs to occur before finishing the school year at Geneva.
Any addressing of this critical issue needs to be done so publicly for all remaining families. Our family will no longer attempt private meetings at this juncture, as there have been a number of discussions and meetings already, in person as well as e-mails. These occurred with the *headmaster, *the principals and *some teachers, without appropriate, God-pleasing measures taken for biblical reasons in which Scripture instructs all believers, which is to be pleasing to the Lord, obeying His commands. The reason given for why HP was eventually removed was because the *grammar principal said, ‘It wasn’t worth the trouble to have it here as there are families like you who feel the way you do.’
We plead with your for your repentance (2 Cor 5:20) and pray for the contradictions to Scripture to be corrected by the grace of God, as Geneva professes to be a “Christian” school with a “biblical worldview.” Some families have even stated that Geneva is more of a church to them than their own church.” Wow! One can clearly recognize and know the responsibility involved in being leaders and teachers who claim to be Christian (Js 3:1) while projecting the intention and accuracy of teaching truth, which is God’s Word only (Jn 17:17).
For more information, please visit my biblical expose at The Berean Library. Thank you.
With Love in Christ, Prayer and Deep Concern for All Families Involved.”
This is the e-mail I received in return from the headmaster:
“I think this is for the best. We clearly do not see eye to eye on a number of important matters.
I had hoped to meet with you and *your husband after the break to discuss some important issues. With your leaving, it is perhaps best to leave matters alone. However, I do wish to inform you that I have been made aware of slanderous comments you have made about me and the school in your blog. Please, stop the slander and misquotes and remove the statements about me. Also, please remove the Mars Hill Poster as you have used it without permission.
I hope your move goes well and that you will find a suitable place for your daughters.”
In response to his e-mail, I wrote:
“No statements or context of my involvement with Geneva and attempts to help the school on my blog are slander and to indicate is bearing false witness. The quote was a c/p from e-mail and used in context. Any info on the internet is covered by the Fair Use Act. If you do not wish to have your link on my blog, you may wish to consider removing this page from the GBS website. Thank you.”
* names removed
Lots of prayers and sadness for Eric and these schools, but thanking and trusting God, in all things, for His glory, as we seek to be pleasing to Him.
-Karla Tadler
Biblical Resources:
Eric Metaxas’ Testimony Promotes His Yale Education, Catholicism, New Age and Jungian Thought. Let me just start off with there are so many things that throw red flags up in this testimony, obviously and subtly. I won’t address them all, but if you are biblically discerned, by God’s grace, and interested in noting everything, you will catch them, after you watch it about a half dozen times, like I did. I’ll just take a look at some things here. For example, how ironic that Metaxas starts off with, “We’re talking about reality here…” and then moves to talking about dreams. He dreamed that God confirmed that Eric accepted Christ because God used Eric’s OWN SYMBOLS SYSTEM to “one up him” to “blow his mind.” WHOA! That God showed Eric, in his dream, that Eric accepted Christ, in his collective unconsciousness which talks to his collect consciousness (Jungian). Secondly, it isn’t biblical to say we “accepted Christ.” It is we sinners who have been in rebellion toward God and need to repent and be accepted by Him. We “receive Christ,” in the words of the apostle Paul, as in we receive the free gift of salvation by God’s grace through faith in Christ alone. It is not the notion of accepting Christ that constitutes salvation. That mentally or emotionally agreeing, mental ascent, to what Christ has done, His ministry, death, burial and resurrection to the right hand of the Father is not saving faith! It is setting Him apart in our hearts, a convicting and regenerating work of the Holy Spirit, that enables us to repent and believe the gospel after the Lord shows us our sinfulness by His grace. When this happens, you know it! There is no question about it. And you don’t need a dream to confirm it. In fact, that is unbiblical. Thirdly, confusion with Eric was noted when he said “something happened.” Again, there is no question or confusion when Christ reveals Himself to a lost sinner. It was “pain,” not sin, that made him consider praying to God with his friend. This would be praying for a felt need rather than repenting for sin. Fourthly, his testimony is not only full of New Age teaching which he literally dreamed up, but it is blasphemous and spews arrogance and idolatry! He depicts Christ as a goldfish, rather a “golden fish” (would that be like a golden calf?) which he pulled by the tail out of a lake, breaking through the ice to “inert water,” which he claimed represented his collective unconsciousness (Jungian).
Where was the gospel in this testimony? It was never mentioned. The Bible and the terms of the gospel (Lk 9:23-26, Mk 1:15; Jn 14:15), the narrow Gate that leads to the narrow path to life/salvation (Mt 7:13-14), the only Way to the Father, JESUS (Jn 14:6), what God has set in place for being born again, were never mentioned. Metaxas claims he found Christ through the New Age, that occultic Jung, who communicated with spirits, lead him there and that God confirmed this to Eric in a dream where God used Eric’s symbols. Big red flag! Lots of ‘em! We do not find Christ, or have assurance of our salvation, by any other means other than the Bible (Rom 1:16; 10:17; 1 Jn 5:13) and with the words of Paul again, by the “Holy Spirit testifying to our spirit,” not to what psychoanalyst Carl Jung calls the “collective conscious” or “collective unconsciousness.” Metaxas is dangerously broadening the Bible’s definition of what it means to be truly born again.
He describes his testimony with New Age terms like “energy force,” “collective unconsciousness (Jungian),” “New Age Eastern force,” “cosmic energy force,” “connects us all together,” “not old-fashioned like a man with a beard on a cloud or Jesus.” YIKES!!!!! His testimony is one of many others directed and produced by Redeemer Presbyterian Church, pastored by Tim Keller, in NYC, every one of these testimonies widening the narrow door. Eric’s testimony comes complete with New Age animation and sounds by Chaos Theory Music.
This is a classic example of a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Whether he realizes it or not, he is deceived by the false teachings of the New Age/New Thought and Psychology Movement coupled with his own pride and arrogance. He did make a true, biblical statement, which many wolves do. Specifically, Eric commented about following Christ, even if it means to suffer for Him and to consider it joy, but then quickly turned to New Age false teaching covered with a ‘Christian’ veneer by mixing in biblical terminology. I don’t believe he’ll be experiencing any of the suffering for Christ that he mentioned because he doesn’t progress and defend the True Gospel, the faith that was handed down to the saints, once for all (Jude 1: 3). Instead he is promoting his books, the New Age, his Yale education and Bonhoeffer as a sound, biblical theologian, which he is not.
Metaxas is promoted and endorsed by Mormon Glenn Beck and purpose-driven, seeker-sensitive, ecumenical Rick Warren. That should tell us something in and of itself! In the interview, Metaxas says proudly that Bonhoeffer is a “Barthian,” as if this is a good thing. Karl Barth was endorsed and promoted by Roman Catholic Pope Pius XII as being as great a theologian as Thomas Aquinas, who was a pagan Catholic that taught mysticism and contemplative prayer.
Dr. Gary Gilley’s Takes on Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Apprising Ministries Gathers HERETICAL Quotes on Bonhoeffer
Tim Challies’ Book Review- He Liked It! HUGH!? Bonhoeffer is heretical! Just a word of caution, I have noted this review(s) by Challies to be more in regards to literary style and application rather than biblical discernment, while criticizing on-line discernment ministries, or “watchbloggers.” Tim does have some really good reviews that cling to examining writings with the Scripture, which I am thankful for and have used on this site. Personally, I highly favor Dr. Gary Gilley’s consistent work for Berean-style, biblical book reviews where he addresses and focuses on examining heresy, to be of utmost helpfulness to the brethren, rather than literary style and application, per se.
I say be careful about anything Metaxas writes, in lieu of his testimony, especially if it relates to Christianity. It will because this is a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
Brethren, beware!
UPDATE (12-087-10): Eric Metaxas is one of the founders for Geneva School of Manhattan, NY. Not sure how involved he still is with this school. I would imagine very much so, especially since he has a daughter in attendance there. It is the mentor school for another classical, Christian school called, Geneva School of Boerne, TX (GSB). Basically, the same name, same idea, different location. The headmaster at the latter school is very much involved with Metaxas, promoting him and his books. How do I know this? Our kids attend this school. GSB has invited Eric Metaxas to be the keynote speaker at theirMars Hill conference, January 16-17, 2011.
Since we have children at GSB [by the way, we have already had to discuss and petition getting Harry Potter out of the school library with the headmaster, last summer, in accordance with Dt 18:9-14] and, now, are witnessing further unraveling of contradictions to Scripture at GSB with Eric Metaxas while being told that GSB is modeled after his school in NYC, I have tried to have further dialogue with GSB, but have seen no opening of eyes or ears, no changes, no repentance, as of yet. I tried to reach and encourage them with the gospel, in love (Eph 4:15), and to inform the headmaster that Bonhoeffer is a book promoting a liberal theologian who denied the deity of Christ. He eventually shut down our chat being sure to defend Metaxas with, “In his book, Eric seeks to set the record straight.” But before he did he took the time to mention his “four years of seminary,” (btw, when someone brings up their education, then you’ve struck a nerve). However, he would not give an answer when directly asked, “Are your sure that if you died today, you would go to heaven?” According to 1 Pt 3:15, we are to be prepared to give an answer. For one who belongs to Christ, there is not another opportunity that holds greater joy than testifying to saving faith in our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Who would not want to share their faith in Christ, especially when given such an easy opportunity to do so?
I discerned last summer, by God’s grace, that something was wrong for Harry Potter to be at this Christian school, not to mention that I saw errors in their Statement of Faith, which I discussed with them, with deep concern, but again, to no avail. I introduced them to the biblical work of Marcia Montenegro of Christian Answers for the New Age and Mike Gendron of Proclaiming the Gospel while requesting a follow up meeting after this two hour meeting, which occurred just prior to the start of the school year. Needless to say, I was avoided from then on. The follow-up meeting never occurred. I would mention my interest to do so, but that was never reciprocated. In fact, I felt avoided by them with a clear distancing and abrupt change toward rude reception from one staff member, in particular, who was not even at the meeting. Forgiveness extended to all, by the grace of God.
With further demonstrations of continuing to be contrary to Scripture with promoting school contributor/founder Eric Metaxas, as well as other issues like being ecumenical with Catholics, promoting The Message and seeker-sensitive, ecumenical, contemplative Max Lucado, which are most of the major concerns there, I can see clearly what eventually transpired was something the Lord wanted me to find out, which wouldn’t have happened if we left the school during the summer. I understand that my assignment was much more than just discovering and addressing Harry Potter being in the library for the children. My prayers for them will continue that what they claim as a school, “Soli Deo Gloria” will indeed be the case as they seek to be pleasing to God in all respects (Col 1:10).
UPDATE II (12-21-10): Our family has realized, by God’s faithful correction in our own lives, which got us out of the seeker-sensitive, church-growth, watered-down false gospel of Ed Young Jr’s church and Max Lucado’s church (same), that The Geneva School of Boerne (GSB) had more of a problem than we had previously understood with the Harry Potter book, a book of fantasy with remarkable occultic teaching, being offered in the their school library. We discovered as the school year continued that this school was not the “Christian” school that we thought it was, just like those churches were not the “Christian” churches we thought they were. We discovered that GSB was founded on false teaching that is in the church, particularly the liberal, social and ecumenical with Catholics false gospels based on what they teach, who they endorse and who played a part in founding the Geneva Schools of Manhattan and Boerne. Thus, our family, believing that we are continuing to apply the Lord’s correction in our lives, while walking in faith to be pleasing to Him (Col 1:10), has made arrangements to leave the school promptly, without any requests for refunds of tuition, over this situation, as we did not want money to gain the attention. Rather, we want the problems that we have discerned and addressed with GSB, by God’s grace and Truth, to prayerfully be the focal point without any distractions that would compromise such attention toward being corrected and repentant by God’s grace.
This is the e-mail I sent to the headmaster, both principals, the children’s teachers and room moms. Our last day of school was this past Friday, December 17, 2010. The Lord has made provisions for our family which included providing an agreed contract on a home and guaranteed placement in lieu of that contract, in their new schools just hours before the schools closed for the Christmas break. Personally, we would rather move closer to our church family, a good, sound, biblical church, praise the Lord, which we had been planning, and have our children attend a small town school that doesn’t claim to be “Christian” while promoting false teaching in the Body of Christ, as GSB does, while we, their parents, teach, train and prepare them to not be shocked by errors, or worldly trends, but confidently and biblically refute the error and worldly trends, like evolution or the vampire phenomenon, for example, in public schools, which is one of the biblical skills they will need to learn to do for themselves one day (1 Cor 5:9-13).
“To Whom It Concerns:
This Friday, December 17th., will be the last day of school for our *Family at Geneva School TX. Today and tomorrow, they will be bringing their belongings home. Our children do not have the ability to grasp the situation at hand and have been parentally instructed to not speak of this matter at school. We would appreciate no questions being asked of them. In fact, we have told them that if anyone does ask questions, which they have told us is happening, to refer people to ask their parents instead or go to http://thebereanlibrary.com. This e-mail is intended to serve in explaining our situation while eliminating any inaccuracies that may occur on campus.
We have been planning a move for our family to be closer to our church family since last summer. Last September after confirming that Harry Potter (HP), as well as other books I noted that promote magic or false teaching, was being offered in the school library, we began the search for property in that area. We considered taking the kids out then, but when told per the handbook and office staff, that moving 50 miles away didn’t constitute a refund of tuition, we decided to keep the kids at Geneva and just see how things would go as we continued to plan on eventually moving. In light of the unraveling of a lack of biblical discernment, conviction and promotion of false teaching at Geneva that goes beyond the condition of the library, we realize, by God’s grace and Word, that the timing of such a move needs to occur before finishing the school year at Geneva.
Any addressing of this critical issue needs to be done so publicly for all remaining families. Our family will no longer attempt private meetings at this juncture, as there have been a number of discussions and meetings already, in person as well as e-mails. These occurred with the *headmaster, *the principals and *some teachers, without appropriate, God-pleasing measures taken for biblical reasons in which Scripture instructs all believers, which is to be pleasing to the Lord, obeying His commands. The reason given for why HP was eventually removed was because the *grammar principal said, ‘It wasn’t worth the trouble to have it here as there are families like you who feel the way you do.’
We plead with your for your repentance (2 Cor 5:20) and pray for the contradictions to Scripture to be corrected by the grace of God, as Geneva professes to be a “Christian” school with a “biblical worldview.” Some families have even stated that Geneva is more of a church to them than their own church.” Wow! One can clearly recognize and know the responsibility involved in being leaders and teachers who claim to be Christian (Js 3:1) while projecting the intention and accuracy of teaching truth, which is God’s Word only (Jn 17:17).
For more information, please visit my biblical expose at The Berean Library. Thank you.
With Love in Christ, Prayer and Deep Concern for All Families Involved.”
This is the e-mail I received in return from the headmaster:
“I think this is for the best. We clearly do not see eye to eye on a number of important matters.
I had hoped to meet with you and *your husband after the break to discuss some important issues. With your leaving, it is perhaps best to leave matters alone. However, I do wish to inform you that I have been made aware of slanderous comments you have made about me and the school in your blog. Please, stop the slander and misquotes and remove the statements about me. Also, please remove the Mars Hill Poster as you have used it without permission.
I hope your move goes well and that you will find a suitable place for your daughters.”
In response to his e-mail, I wrote:
“No statements or context of my involvement with Geneva and attempts to help the school on my blog are slander and to indicate is bearing false witness. The quote was a c/p from e-mail and used in context. Any info on the internet is covered by the Fair Use Act. If you do not wish to have your link on my blog, you may wish to consider removing this page from the GBS website. Thank you.”
* names removed
Lots of prayers and sadness for Eric and these schools, but thanking and trusting God, in all things, for His glory, as we seek to be pleasing to Him.
-Karla Tadler
Biblical Resources:
Eric Metaxas’ Testimony Promotes His Yale Education, Catholicism, New Age and Jungian Thought. Let me just start off with there are so many things that throw red flags up in this testimony, obviously and subtly. I won’t address them all, but if you are biblically discerned, by God’s grace, and interested in noting everything, you will catch them, after you watch it about a half dozen times, like I did. I’ll just take a look at some things here. For example, how ironic that Metaxas starts off with, “We’re talking about reality here…” and then moves to talking about dreams. He dreamed that God confirmed that Eric accepted Christ because God used Eric’s OWN SYMBOLS SYSTEM to “one up him” to “blow his mind.” WHOA! That God showed Eric, in his dream, that Eric accepted Christ, in his collective unconsciousness which talks to his collect consciousness (Jungian). Secondly, it isn’t biblical to say we “accepted Christ.” It is we sinners who have been in rebellion toward God and need to repent and be accepted by Him. We “receive Christ,” in the words of the apostle Paul, as in we receive the free gift of salvation by God’s grace through faith in Christ alone. It is not the notion of accepting Christ that constitutes salvation. That mentally or emotionally agreeing, mental ascent, to what Christ has done, His ministry, death, burial and resurrection to the right hand of the Father is not saving faith! It is setting Him apart in our hearts, a convicting and regenerating work of the Holy Spirit, that enables us to repent and believe the gospel after the Lord shows us our sinfulness by His grace. When this happens, you know it! There is no question about it. And you don’t need a dream to confirm it. In fact, that is unbiblical. Thirdly, confusion with Eric was noted when he said “something happened.” Again, there is no question or confusion when Christ reveals Himself to a lost sinner. It was “pain,” not sin, that made him consider praying to God with his friend. This would be praying for a felt need rather than repenting for sin. Fourthly, his testimony is not only full of New Age teaching which he literally dreamed up, but it is blasphemous and spews arrogance and idolatry! He depicts Christ as a goldfish, rather a “golden fish” (would that be like a golden calf?) which he pulled by the tail out of a lake, breaking through the ice to “inert water,” which he claimed represented his collective unconsciousness (Jungian).
Where was the gospel in this testimony? It was never mentioned. The Bible and the terms of the gospel (Lk 9:23-26, Mk 1:15; Jn 14:15), the narrow Gate that leads to the narrow path to life/salvation (Mt 7:13-14), the only Way to the Father, JESUS (Jn 14:6), what God has set in place for being born again, were never mentioned. Metaxas claims he found Christ through the New Age, that occultic Jung, who communicated with spirits, lead him there and that God confirmed this to Eric in a dream where God used Eric’s symbols. Big red flag! Lots of ‘em! We do not find Christ, or have assurance of our salvation, by any other means other than the Bible (Rom 1:16; 10:17; 1 Jn 5:13) and with the words of Paul again, by the “Holy Spirit testifying to our spirit,” not to what psychoanalyst Carl Jung calls the “collective conscious” or “collective unconsciousness.” Metaxas is dangerously broadening the Bible’s definition of what it means to be truly born again.
He describes his testimony with New Age terms like “energy force,” “collective unconsciousness (Jungian),” “New Age Eastern force,” “cosmic energy force,” “connects us all together,” “not old-fashioned like a man with a beard on a cloud or Jesus.” YIKES!!!!! His testimony is one of many others directed and produced by Redeemer Presbyterian Church, pastored by Tim Keller, in NYC, every one of these testimonies widening the narrow door. Eric’s testimony comes complete with New Age animation and sounds by Chaos Theory Music.
This is a classic example of a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Whether he realizes it or not, he is deceived by the false teachings of the New Age/New Thought and Psychology Movement coupled with his own pride and arrogance. He did make a true, biblical statement, which many wolves do. Specifically, Eric commented about following Christ, even if it means to suffer for Him and to consider it joy, but then quickly turned to New Age false teaching covered with a ‘Christian’ veneer by mixing in biblical terminology. I don’t believe he’ll be experiencing any of the suffering for Christ that he mentioned because he doesn’t progress and defend the True Gospel, the faith that was handed down to the saints, once for all (Jude 1: 3). Instead he is promoting his books, the New Age, his Yale education and Bonhoeffer as a sound, biblical theologian, which he is not.
Metaxas is promoted and endorsed by Mormon Glenn Beck and purpose-driven, seeker-sensitive, ecumenical Rick Warren. That should tell us something in and of itself! In the interview, Metaxas says proudly that Bonhoeffer is a “Barthian,” as if this is a good thing. Karl Barth was endorsed and promoted by Roman Catholic Pope Pius XII as being as great a theologian as Thomas Aquinas, who was a pagan Catholic that taught mysticism and contemplative prayer.
Dr. Gary Gilley’s Takes on Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Apprising Ministries Gathers HERETICAL Quotes on Bonhoeffer
Tim Challies’ Book Review- He Liked It! HUGH!? Bonhoeffer is heretical! Just a word of caution, I have noted this review(s) by Challies to be more in regards to literary style and application rather than biblical discernment, while criticizing on-line discernment ministries, or “watchbloggers.” Tim does have some really good reviews that cling to examining writings with the Scripture, which I am thankful for and have used on this site. Personally, I highly favor Dr. Gary Gilley’s consistent work for Berean-style, biblical book reviews where he addresses and focuses on examining heresy, to be of utmost helpfulness to the brethren, rather than literary style and application, per se.
I say be careful about anything Metaxas writes, in lieu of his testimony, especially if it relates to Christianity. It will because this is a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
Brethren, beware!
UPDATE (12-087-10): Eric Metaxas is one of the founders for Geneva School of Manhattan, NY. Not sure how involved he still is with this school. I would imagine very much so, especially since he has a daughter in attendance there. It is the mentor school for another classical, Christian school called, Geneva School of Boerne, TX (GSB). Basically, the same name, same idea, different location. The headmaster at the latter school is very much involved with Metaxas, promoting him and his books. How do I know this? Our kids attend this school. GSB has invited Eric Metaxas to be the keynote speaker at theirMars Hill conference, January 16-17, 2011.
Since we have children at GSB [by the way, we have already had to discuss and petition getting Harry Potter out of the school library with the headmaster, last summer, in accordance with Dt 18:9-14] and, now, are witnessing further unraveling of contradictions to Scripture at GSB with Eric Metaxas while being told that GSB is modeled after his school in NYC, I have tried to have further dialogue with GSB, but have seen no opening of eyes or ears, no changes, no repentance, as of yet. I tried to reach and encourage them with the gospel, in love (Eph 4:15), and to inform the headmaster that Bonhoeffer is a book promoting a liberal theologian who denied the deity of Christ. He eventually shut down our chat being sure to defend Metaxas with, “In his book, Eric seeks to set the record straight.” But before he did he took the time to mention his “four years of seminary,” (btw, when someone brings up their education, then you’ve struck a nerve). However, he would not give an answer when directly asked, “Are your sure that if you died today, you would go to heaven?” According to 1 Pt 3:15, we are to be prepared to give an answer. For one who belongs to Christ, there is not another opportunity that holds greater joy than testifying to saving faith in our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Who would not want to share their faith in Christ, especially when given such an easy opportunity to do so?
I discerned last summer, by God’s grace, that something was wrong for Harry Potter to be at this Christian school, not to mention that I saw errors in their Statement of Faith, which I discussed with them, with deep concern, but again, to no avail. I introduced them to the biblical work of Marcia Montenegro of Christian Answers for the New Age and Mike Gendron of Proclaiming the Gospel while requesting a follow up meeting after this two hour meeting, which occurred just prior to the start of the school year. Needless to say, I was avoided from then on. The follow-up meeting never occurred. I would mention my interest to do so, but that was never reciprocated. In fact, I felt avoided by them with a clear distancing and abrupt change toward rude reception from one staff member, in particular, who was not even at the meeting. Forgiveness extended to all, by the grace of God.
With further demonstrations of continuing to be contrary to Scripture with promoting school contributor/founder Eric Metaxas, as well as other issues like being ecumenical with Catholics, promoting The Message and seeker-sensitive, ecumenical, contemplative Max Lucado, which are most of the major concerns there, I can see clearly what eventually transpired was something the Lord wanted me to find out, which wouldn’t have happened if we left the school during the summer. I understand that my assignment was much more than just discovering and addressing Harry Potter being in the library for the children. My prayers for them will continue that what they claim as a school, “Soli Deo Gloria” will indeed be the case as they seek to be pleasing to God in all respects (Col 1:10).
UPDATE II (12-21-10): Our family has realized, by God’s faithful correction in our own lives, which got us out of the seeker-sensitive, church-growth, watered-down false gospel of Ed Young Jr’s church and Max Lucado’s church (same), that The Geneva School of Boerne (GSB) had more of a problem than we had previously understood with the Harry Potter book, a book of fantasy with remarkable occultic teaching, being offered in the their school library. We discovered as the school year continued that this school was not the “Christian” school that we thought it was, just like those churches were not the “Christian” churches we thought they were. We discovered that GSB was founded on false teaching that is in the church, particularly the liberal, social and ecumenical with Catholics false gospels based on what they teach, who they endorse and who played a part in founding the Geneva Schools of Manhattan and Boerne. Thus, our family, believing that we are continuing to apply the Lord’s correction in our lives, while walking in faith to be pleasing to Him (Col 1:10), has made arrangements to leave the school promptly, without any requests for refunds of tuition, over this situation, as we did not want money to gain the attention. Rather, we want the problems that we have discerned and addressed with GSB, by God’s grace and Truth, to prayerfully be the focal point without any distractions that would compromise such attention toward being corrected and repentant by God’s grace.
This is the e-mail I sent to the headmaster, both principals, the children’s teachers and room moms. Our last day of school was this past Friday, December 17, 2010. The Lord has made provisions for our family which included providing an agreed contract on a home and guaranteed placement in lieu of that contract, in their new schools just hours before the schools closed for the Christmas break. Personally, we would rather move closer to our church family, a good, sound, biblical church, praise the Lord, which we had been planning, and have our children attend a small town school that doesn’t claim to be “Christian” while promoting false teaching in the Body of Christ, as GSB does, while we, their parents, teach, train and prepare them to not be shocked by errors, or worldly trends, but confidently and biblically refute the error and worldly trends, like evolution or the vampire phenomenon, for example, in public schools, which is one of the biblical skills they will need to learn to do for themselves one day (1 Cor 5:9-13).
“To Whom It Concerns:
This Friday, December 17th., will be the last day of school for our *Family at Geneva School TX. Today and tomorrow, they will be bringing their belongings home. Our children do not have the ability to grasp the situation at hand and have been parentally instructed to not speak of this matter at school. We would appreciate no questions being asked of them. In fact, we have told them that if anyone does ask questions, which they have told us is happening, to refer people to ask their parents instead or go to http://thebereanlibrary.com. This e-mail is intended to serve in explaining our situation while eliminating any inaccuracies that may occur on campus.
We have been planning a move for our family to be closer to our church family since last summer. Last September after confirming that Harry Potter (HP), as well as other books I noted that promote magic or false teaching, was being offered in the school library, we began the search for property in that area. We considered taking the kids out then, but when told per the handbook and office staff, that moving 50 miles away didn’t constitute a refund of tuition, we decided to keep the kids at Geneva and just see how things would go as we continued to plan on eventually moving. In light of the unraveling of a lack of biblical discernment, conviction and promotion of false teaching at Geneva that goes beyond the condition of the library, we realize, by God’s grace and Word, that the timing of such a move needs to occur before finishing the school year at Geneva.
Any addressing of this critical issue needs to be done so publicly for all remaining families. Our family will no longer attempt private meetings at this juncture, as there have been a number of discussions and meetings already, in person as well as e-mails. These occurred with the *headmaster, *the principals and *some teachers, without appropriate, God-pleasing measures taken for biblical reasons in which Scripture instructs all believers, which is to be pleasing to the Lord, obeying His commands. The reason given for why HP was eventually removed was because the *grammar principal said, ‘It wasn’t worth the trouble to have it here as there are families like you who feel the way you do.’
We plead with your for your repentance (2 Cor 5:20) and pray for the contradictions to Scripture to be corrected by the grace of God, as Geneva professes to be a “Christian” school with a “biblical worldview.” Some families have even stated that Geneva is more of a church to them than their own church.” Wow! One can clearly recognize and know the responsibility involved in being leaders and teachers who claim to be Christian (Js 3:1) while projecting the intention and accuracy of teaching truth, which is God’s Word only (Jn 17:17).
For more information, please visit my biblical expose at The Berean Library. Thank you.
With Love in Christ, Prayer and Deep Concern for All Families Involved.”
This is the e-mail I received in return from the headmaster:
“I think this is for the best. We clearly do not see eye to eye on a number of important matters.
I had hoped to meet with you and *your husband after the break to discuss some important issues. With your leaving, it is perhaps best to leave matters alone. However, I do wish to inform you that I have been made aware of slanderous comments you have made about me and the school in your blog. Please, stop the slander and misquotes and remove the statements about me. Also, please remove the Mars Hill Poster as you have used it without permission.
I hope your move goes well and that you will find a suitable place for your daughters.”
In response to his e-mail, I wrote:
“No statements or context of my involvement with Geneva and attempts to help the school on my blog are slander and to indicate is bearing false witness. The quote was a c/p from e-mail and used in context. Any info on the internet is covered by the Fair Use Act. If you do not wish to have your link on my blog, you may wish to consider removing this page from the GBS website. Thank you.”
* names removed
Lots of prayers and sadness for Eric and these schools, but thanking and trusting God, in all things, for His glory, as we seek to be pleasing to Him.
-Karla Tadler
Biblical Resources:
Eric Metaxas’ Testimony Promotes His Yale Education, Catholicism, New Age and Jungian Thought. Let me just start off with there are so many things that throw red flags up in this testimony, obviously and subtly. I won’t address them all, but if you are biblically discerned, by God’s grace, and interested in noting everything, you will catch them, after you watch it about a half dozen times, like I did. I’ll just take a look at some things here. For example, how ironic that Metaxas starts off with, “We’re talking about reality here…” and then moves to talking about dreams. He dreamed that God confirmed that Eric accepted Christ because God used Eric’s OWN SYMBOLS SYSTEM to “one up him” to “blow his mind.” WHOA! That God showed Eric, in his dream, that Eric accepted Christ, in his collective unconsciousness which talks to his collect consciousness (Jungian). Secondly, it isn’t biblical to say we “accepted Christ.” It is we sinners who have been in rebellion toward God and need to repent and be accepted by Him. We “receive Christ,” in the words of the apostle Paul, as in we receive the free gift of salvation by God’s grace through faith in Christ alone. It is not the notion of accepting Christ that constitutes salvation. That mentally or emotionally agreeing, mental ascent, to what Christ has done, His ministry, death, burial and resurrection to the right hand of the Father is not saving faith! It is setting Him apart in our hearts, a convicting and regenerating work of the Holy Spirit, that enables us to repent and believe the gospel after the Lord shows us our sinfulness by His grace. When this happens, you know it! There is no question about it. And you don’t need a dream to confirm it. In fact, that is unbiblical. Thirdly, confusion with Eric was noted when he said “something happened.” Again, there is no question or confusion when Christ reveals Himself to a lost sinner. It was “pain,” not sin, that made him consider praying to God with his friend. This would be praying for a felt need rather than repenting for sin. Fourthly, his testimony is not only full of New Age teaching which he literally dreamed up, but it is blasphemous and spews arrogance and idolatry! He depicts Christ as a goldfish, rather a “golden fish” (would that be like a golden calf?) which he pulled by the tail out of a lake, breaking through the ice to “inert water,” which he claimed represented his collective unconsciousness (Jungian).
Where was the gospel in this testimony? It was never mentioned. The Bible and the terms of the gospel (Lk 9:23-26, Mk 1:15; Jn 14:15), the narrow Gate that leads to the narrow path to life/salvation (Mt 7:13-14), the only Way to the Father, JESUS (Jn 14:6), what God has set in place for being born again, were never mentioned. Metaxas claims he found Christ through the New Age, that occultic Jung, who communicated with spirits, lead him there and that God confirmed this to Eric in a dream where God used Eric’s symbols. Big red flag! Lots of ‘em! We do not find Christ, or have assurance of our salvation, by any other means other than the Bible (Rom 1:16; 10:17; 1 Jn 5:13) and with the words of Paul again, by the “Holy Spirit testifying to our spirit,” not to what psychoanalyst Carl Jung calls the “collective conscious” or “collective unconsciousness.” Metaxas is dangerously broadening the Bible’s definition of what it means to be truly born again.
He describes his testimony with New Age terms like “energy force,” “collective unconsciousness (Jungian),” “New Age Eastern force,” “cosmic energy force,” “connects us all together,” “not old-fashioned like a man with a beard on a cloud or Jesus.” YIKES!!!!! His testimony is one of many others directed and produced by Redeemer Presbyterian Church, pastored by Tim Keller, in NYC, every one of these testimonies widening the narrow door. Eric’s testimony comes complete with New Age animation and sounds by Chaos Theory Music.
This is a classic example of a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Whether he realizes it or not, he is deceived by the false teachings of the New Age/New Thought and Psychology Movement coupled with his own pride and arrogance. He did make a true, biblical statement, which many wolves do. Specifically, Eric commented about following Christ, even if it means to suffer for Him and to consider it joy, but then quickly turned to New Age false teaching covered with a ‘Christian’ veneer by mixing in biblical terminology. I don’t believe he’ll be experiencing any of the suffering for Christ that he mentioned because he doesn’t progress and defend the True Gospel, the faith that was handed down to the saints, once for all (Jude 1: 3). Instead he is promoting his books, the New Age, his Yale education and Bonhoeffer as a sound, biblical theologian, which he is not.
Metaxas is promoted and endorsed by Mormon Glenn Beck and purpose-driven, seeker-sensitive, ecumenical Rick Warren. That should tell us something in and of itself! In the interview, Metaxas says proudly that Bonhoeffer is a “Barthian,” as if this is a good thing. Karl Barth was endorsed and promoted by Roman Catholic Pope Pius XII as being as great a theologian as Thomas Aquinas, who was a pagan Catholic that taught mysticism and contemplative prayer.
Dr. Gary Gilley’s Takes on Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Apprising Ministries Gathers HERETICAL Quotes on Bonhoeffer
Tim Challies’ Book Review- He Liked It! HUGH!? Bonhoeffer is heretical! Just a word of caution, I have noted this review(s) by Challies to be more in regards to literary style and application rather than biblical discernment, while criticizing on-line discernment ministries, or “watchbloggers.” Tim does have some really good reviews that cling to examining writings with the Scripture, which I am thankful for and have used on this site. Personally, I highly favor Dr. Gary Gilley’s consistent work for Berean-style, biblical book reviews where he addresses and focuses on examining heresy, to be of utmost helpfulness to the brethren, rather than literary style and application, per se.
I say be careful about anything Metaxas writes, in lieu of his testimony, especially if it relates to Christianity. It will because this is a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
Brethren, beware!
UPDATE (12-087-10): Eric Metaxas is one of the founders for Geneva School of Manhattan, NY. Not sure how involved he still is with this school. I would imagine very much so, especially since he has a daughter in attendance there. It is the mentor school for another classical, Christian school called, Geneva School of Boerne, TX (GSB). Basically, the same name, same idea, different location. The headmaster at the latter school is very much involved with Metaxas, promoting him and his books. How do I know this? Our kids attend this school. GSB has invited Eric Metaxas to be the keynote speaker at theirMars Hill conference, January 16-17, 2011.
Since we have children at GSB [by the way, we have already had to discuss and petition getting Harry Potter out of the school library with the headmaster, last summer, in accordance with Dt 18:9-14] and, now, are witnessing further unraveling of contradictions to Scripture at GSB with Eric Metaxas while being told that GSB is modeled after his school in NYC, I have tried to have further dialogue with GSB, but have seen no opening of eyes or ears, no changes, no repentance, as of yet. I tried to reach and encourage them with the gospel, in love (Eph 4:15), and to inform the headmaster that Bonhoeffer is a book promoting a liberal theologian who denied the deity of Christ. He eventually shut down our chat being sure to defend Metaxas with, “In his book, Eric seeks to set the record straight.” But before he did he took the time to mention his “four years of seminary,” (btw, when someone brings up their education, then you’ve struck a nerve). However, he would not give an answer when directly asked, “Are your sure that if you died today, you would go to heaven?” According to 1 Pt 3:15, we are to be prepared to give an answer. For one who belongs to Christ, there is not another opportunity that holds greater joy than testifying to saving faith in our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Who would not want to share their faith in Christ, especially when given such an easy opportunity to do so?
I discerned last summer, by God’s grace, that something was wrong for Harry Potter to be at this Christian school, not to mention that I saw errors in their Statement of Faith, which I discussed with them, with deep concern, but again, to no avail. I introduced them to the biblical work of Marcia Montenegro of Christian Answers for the New Age and Mike Gendron of Proclaiming the Gospel while requesting a follow up meeting after this two hour meeting, which occurred just prior to the start of the school year. Needless to say, I was avoided from then on. The follow-up meeting never occurred. I would mention my interest to do so, but that was never reciprocated. In fact, I felt avoided by them with a clear distancing and abrupt change toward rude reception from one staff member, in particular, who was not even at the meeting. Forgiveness extended to all, by the grace of God.
With further demonstrations of continuing to be contrary to Scripture with promoting school contributor/founder Eric Metaxas, as well as other issues like being ecumenical with Catholics, promoting The Message and seeker-sensitive, ecumenical, contemplative Max Lucado, which are most of the major concerns there, I can see clearly what eventually transpired was something the Lord wanted me to find out, which wouldn’t have happened if we left the school during the summer. I understand that my assignment was much more than just discovering and addressing Harry Potter being in the library for the children. My prayers for them will continue that what they claim as a school, “Soli Deo Gloria” will indeed be the case as they seek to be pleasing to God in all respects (Col 1:10).
UPDATE II (12-21-10): Our family has realized, by God’s faithful correction in our own lives, which got us out of the seeker-sensitive, church-growth, watered-down false gospel of Ed Young Jr’s church and Max Lucado’s church (same), that The Geneva School of Boerne (GSB) had more of a problem than we had previously understood with the Harry Potter book, a book of fantasy with remarkable occultic teaching, being offered in the their school library. We discovered as the school year continued that this school was not the “Christian” school that we thought it was, just like those churches were not the “Christian” churches we thought they were. We discovered that GSB was founded on false teaching that is in the church, particularly the liberal, social and ecumenical with Catholics false gospels based on what they teach, who they endorse and who played a part in founding the Geneva Schools of Manhattan and Boerne. Thus, our family, believing that we are continuing to apply the Lord’s correction in our lives, while walking in faith to be pleasing to Him (Col 1:10), has made arrangements to leave the school promptly, without any requests for refunds of tuition, over this situation, as we did not want money to gain the attention. Rather, we want the problems that we have discerned and addressed with GSB, by God’s grace and Truth, to prayerfully be the focal point without any distractions that would compromise such attention toward being corrected and repentant by God’s grace.
This is the e-mail I sent to the headmaster, both principals, the children’s teachers and room moms. Our last day of school was this past Friday, December 17, 2010. The Lord has made provisions for our family which included providing an agreed contract on a home and guaranteed placement in lieu of that contract, in their new schools just hours before the schools closed for the Christmas break. Personally, we would rather move closer to our church family, a good, sound, biblical church, praise the Lord, which we had been planning, and have our children attend a small town school that doesn’t claim to be “Christian” while promoting false teaching in the Body of Christ, as GSB does, while we, their parents, teach, train and prepare them to not be shocked by errors, or worldly trends, but confidently and biblically refute the error and worldly trends, like evolution or the vampire phenomenon, for example, in public schools, which is one of the biblical skills they will need to learn to do for themselves one day (1 Cor 5:9-13).
“To Whom It Concerns:
This Friday, December 17th., will be the last day of school for our *Family at Geneva School TX. Today and tomorrow, they will be bringing their belongings home. Our children do not have the ability to grasp the situation at hand and have been parentally instructed to not speak of this matter at school. We would appreciate no questions being asked of them. In fact, we have told them that if anyone does ask questions, which they have told us is happening, to refer people to ask their parents instead or go to http://thebereanlibrary.com. This e-mail is intended to serve in explaining our situation while eliminating any inaccuracies that may occur on campus.
We have been planning a move for our family to be closer to our church family since last summer. Last September after confirming that Harry Potter (HP), as well as other books I noted that promote magic or false teaching, was being offered in the school library, we began the search for property in that area. We considered taking the kids out then, but when told per the handbook and office staff, that moving 50 miles away didn’t constitute a refund of tuition, we decided to keep the kids at Geneva and just see how things would go as we continued to plan on eventually moving. In light of the unraveling of a lack of biblical discernment, conviction and promotion of false teaching at Geneva that goes beyond the condition of the library, we realize, by God’s grace and Word, that the timing of such a move needs to occur before finishing the school year at Geneva.
Any addressing of this critical issue needs to be done so publicly for all remaining families. Our family will no longer attempt private meetings at this juncture, as there have been a number of discussions and meetings already, in person as well as e-mails. These occurred with the *headmaster, *the principals and *some teachers, without appropriate, God-pleasing measures taken for biblical reasons in which Scripture instructs all believers, which is to be pleasing to the Lord, obeying His commands. The reason given for why HP was eventually removed was because the *grammar principal said, ‘It wasn’t worth the trouble to have it here as there are families like you who feel the way you do.’
We plead with your for your repentance (2 Cor 5:20) and pray for the contradictions to Scripture to be corrected by the grace of God, as Geneva professes to be a “Christian” school with a “biblical worldview.” Some families have even stated that Geneva is more of a church to them than their own church.” Wow! One can clearly recognize and know the responsibility involved in being leaders and teachers who claim to be Christian (Js 3:1) while projecting the intention and accuracy of teaching truth, which is God’s Word only (Jn 17:17).
For more information, please visit my biblical expose at The Berean Library. Thank you.
With Love in Christ, Prayer and Deep Concern for All Families Involved.”
This is the e-mail I received in return from the headmaster:
“I think this is for the best. We clearly do not see eye to eye on a number of important matters.
I had hoped to meet with you and *your husband after the break to discuss some important issues. With your leaving, it is perhaps best to leave matters alone. However, I do wish to inform you that I have been made aware of slanderous comments you have made about me and the school in your blog. Please, stop the slander and misquotes and remove the statements about me. Also, please remove the Mars Hill Poster as you have used it without permission.
I hope your move goes well and that you will find a suitable place for your daughters.”
In response to his e-mail, I wrote:
“No statements or context of my involvement with Geneva and attempts to help the school on my blog are slander and to indicate is bearing false witness. The quote was a c/p from e-mail and used in context. Any info on the internet is covered by the Fair Use Act. If you do not wish to have your link on my blog, you may wish to consider removing this page from the GBS website. Thank you.”
* names removed
Lots of prayers and sadness for Eric and these schools, but thanking and trusting God, in all things, for His glory, as we seek to be pleasing to Him.
-Karla Tadler
