Chapter 3~ The Jericho Miracle
Note to reader: For the sake of convenience and ease on you the reader I will be breaking down the reviews of every chapter from this point on into smaller sections that follow Batterson’s subchapter titles. This will help make it easier for you the reader to pin point areas of interest and for me to detail the reviews easier. This will be a more effective way of categorizing and explaining in short reviews what is wrong with The Circle Maker.
Batterson once again starts out chapter 3 of The Circle Maker with a short recap of some of the past books he has read and events that have taken place that have lead up to him writing this book. As we read page 19 in the last paragraph we come across Batterson talking about his grandfather praying for him in the past. Now I am not against prayer at all and I am not saying that we shouldn’t pray for our children or our grand children, doing so is biblical. The problem here is not that fact that Batterson’s grandfather prayed for him. The problem is what Batterson equivocates with this praying for him and his adding to the meaning of the prayer.
Batterson states the following: ”In fact, prayer is spiritual inheritance I have received from my grandparents.”
This statement by Batterson is troublesome. While it may sound well meaning and harmless there is something afoot with his statement. When Batterson talks about a “spiritual inheritance” this statement actually has a dual and implicative meaning. First, the terminology “spiritual inheritance” when used in Roman Catholicism comes from an ancient mystical teaching on the “Treasury of Merit” used by ancient Monks. This teaching is where a person or a monk can pray for another person so that the person they are praying for sins are forgiven in place of that person’s prayers. This teaching according to official Roman Catholic documents also can be used to store prayers away for use on others in the future as to have “Merit” given upon family members to bring blessings to them. Of course, one will look long and hard in their bible to find this teaching on the “Treasury of Merit” and you will come up with nothing but blank pages on this teaching because it’s not there.
A second more common use of the terminology “Treasury of Merit” is found in the modern day New Apostolic Reformation movement, NAR for short. While the NAR may not call this teaching the “Treasury of Merit” the teaching behind it is still the same. Popular teachers like Jentezen Franklin a, NAR Pastor, uses such terms as inheritance prayers, store house of prayers, or treasury of prayers to describe storing prayers up in heaven to be used on the next generation of your family or a believer. Teachers like
Jentezen Franklin try to justify their teachings on the subject by taking biblical texts out of context, playing fast and loose with the Word of God and at times not even using any biblical texts to support their opinions.
This false teaching on storing prayers in heaven is propagated even more by Batterson when he states on page 20; “he died (grandfather) when I was six, his prayers did not.”
What Batterson is falsely implying here is that his grandfather’s prayers were stored in heaven in and then released upon Batterson at a later time. This teaching either when done by Roman Catholics, NAR pastors, or Batterson amounts to nothing more than pagan mysticism and has no biblical merit.
Right after Batterson’s above statement about his grandfather’s prayers not dying he goes on to describe a supposed literal encounter with God speaking to him personally. Batterson states the following; “There have been moments in my life when the Spirit of God has whispered to my spirit, the prayers of your grandfather are being answered right now.”
One can only start out by saying WOW, Really? So God is personally talking to you Mr. Batterson? Does this happen often? Batterson’s statement is problematic at the very least and border line blasphemy. It should be pointed out while yes God did speak to people in the Old Testament and New Testament in audible voices this was limited to the time and place of those occurrences. This was not a common everyday occurrence nor does scripture teach that God talks to us today in audible voices like he did in the past. We today have the complete Word of God; this is how God talks to us and tells us what we are to know. He does not speak to us in voices or from His Spirit to our spirit. We have Jesus and the Holy Spirit as our guides’; the two persons of the Trinity which the Old and New Testament receivers of audible words from God did not have. Pastors like Batterson that try and use this technique of spiritual mysticism to try and give authority to their opinions and teachings are actually teaching a heretical doctrine and are misleading many to the gates of hell.
Another point to mention is that Batterson is in a very basic sense is saying that he has receive a clearance on any vision he has for his church or what he thinks that God wants him to do. Disagreeing with Batterson or his vision would in sense be disagreeing with God Himself. This leaves anyone who disagrees with Batterson or his church at odds with not only him but the Spirit of God. Furthermore, what Batterson has done specifically is set it up that if you question his book “The Circle Maker,” than you are questioning a work of God.
This palor trick of vision casting is very popular among the seeker friend and Emergent church leaders of the day. It is used to keep the goats in lock and step and to keep anyone with any biblical discernment feeling that they cannot question the churches leadership without first questioning God. Remember don’t touch the anointed one (sarcasm).
To try and make this palor trick of vision casting complete Batterson tries further down on page 20 to try and tie his grandfather’s praying for him in with Honi and making prayer circles. He tries to establish a connection that his grandfather was praying circles around him to Honi maing circles in the sand to make a demand to God for rain. This is a poor attempt to justify psychobabble.
After Batterson tries to sell us on God speaking to his spirit he tells us the following; “Honi the circle maker was like a revelation of the power of prayer. It gave me a new vocabulary, a new imagery, a new methodology. It not only inspired me to pray bold prayers but also helped me pray with more perseverance.”
So I guess Honi not God or His Word inspires Batterson in prayer? Why do we need a new revelation of the power of Prayer? Does not God’s Word give us enough of a revelation and power on prayer? Do I need a new vocabulary, imagery, or methodology? NO! I don’t and neither do you. Everything we need to know about prayer and how to pray and to be inspired to pray about is found in the God’s Word not in Batterson’s book of fables.
At the end of this segment of Chapter 3 Batterson leaves us with the story of Israelites marching around the walls of Jericho. What Batterson does here in trying to set us up for the next segment of Chapter 3 is literally take the story of the Walls of Jericho and try and apply it to us today. Sorry, the story about the Walls of Jericho and the Israelites marching around them is not about us at all. This story was meant to show the power of God for a certain time in history and for the power of God to be reveled for a certain people, the Israelites, not us. What Batterson is doing here is very simply reading himself into the biblical text. This is another very common palor trick of teachers like Mark Batterson, and other seeker friendly Emergent types. What they are actually doing when applying themselves to the biblical text is appeasing one of Maslow’s scale of felt needs not actually preaching or teaching a biblical message. In this case it fits Batterson’s agenda to teach that the story of the Walls of Jericho is about us and applies to us today not for the Israelites. Thus fulfilling one of Maslow’s felt needs.
In our next review we will be looking at the section of Chapter 3 called “Jericho March” pages 20 to 21.
Batterson once again starts out chapter 3 of The Circle Maker with a short recap of some of the past books he has read and events that have taken place that have lead up to him writing this book. As we read page 19 in the last paragraph we come across Batterson talking about his grandfather praying for him in the past. Now I am not against prayer at all and I am not saying that we shouldn’t pray for our children or our grand children, doing so is biblical. The problem here is not that fact that Batterson’s grandfather prayed for him. The problem is what Batterson equivocates with this praying for him and his adding to the meaning of the prayer.
Batterson states the following: ”In fact, prayer is spiritual inheritance I have received from my grandparents.”
This statement by Batterson is troublesome. While it may sound well meaning and harmless there is something afoot with his statement. When Batterson talks about a “spiritual inheritance” this statement actually has a dual and implicative meaning. First, the terminology “spiritual inheritance” when used in Roman Catholicism comes from an ancient mystical teaching on the “Treasury of Merit” used by ancient Monks. This teaching is where a person or a monk can pray for another person so that the person they are praying for sins are forgiven in place of that person’s prayers. This teaching according to official Roman Catholic documents also can be used to store prayers away for use on others in the future as to have “Merit” given upon family members to bring blessings to them. Of course, one will look long and hard in their bible to find this teaching on the “Treasury of Merit” and you will come up with nothing but blank pages on this teaching because it’s not there.
A second more common use of the terminology “Treasury of Merit” is found in the modern day New Apostolic Reformation movement, NAR for short. While the NAR may not call this teaching the “Treasury of Merit” the teaching behind it is still the same. Popular teachers like Jentezen Franklin a, NAR Pastor, uses such terms as inheritance prayers, store house of prayers, or treasury of prayers to describe storing prayers up in heaven to be used on the next generation of your family or a believer. Teachers like
Jentezen Franklin try to justify their teachings on the subject by taking biblical texts out of context, playing fast and loose with the Word of God and at times not even using any biblical texts to support their opinions.
This false teaching on storing prayers in heaven is propagated even more by Batterson when he states on page 20; “he died (grandfather) when I was six, his prayers did not.”
What Batterson is falsely implying here is that his grandfather’s prayers were stored in heaven in and then released upon Batterson at a later time. This teaching either when done by Roman Catholics, NAR pastors, or Batterson amounts to nothing more than pagan mysticism and has no biblical merit.
Right after Batterson’s above statement about his grandfather’s prayers not dying he goes on to describe a supposed literal encounter with God speaking to him personally. Batterson states the following; “There have been moments in my life when the Spirit of God has whispered to my spirit, the prayers of your grandfather are being answered right now.”
One can only start out by saying WOW, Really? So God is personally talking to you Mr. Batterson? Does this happen often? Batterson’s statement is problematic at the very least and border line blasphemy. It should be pointed out while yes God did speak to people in the Old Testament and New Testament in audible voices this was limited to the time and place of those occurrences. This was not a common everyday occurrence nor does scripture teach that God talks to us today in audible voices like he did in the past. We today have the complete Word of God; this is how God talks to us and tells us what we are to know. He does not speak to us in voices or from His Spirit to our spirit. We have Jesus and the Holy Spirit as our guides’; the two persons of the Trinity which the Old and New Testament receivers of audible words from God did not have. Pastors like Batterson that try and use this technique of spiritual mysticism to try and give authority to their opinions and teachings are actually teaching a heretical doctrine and are misleading many to the gates of hell.
Another point to mention is that Batterson is in a very basic sense is saying that he has receive a clearance on any vision he has for his church or what he thinks that God wants him to do. Disagreeing with Batterson or his vision would in sense be disagreeing with God Himself. This leaves anyone who disagrees with Batterson or his church at odds with not only him but the Spirit of God. Furthermore, what Batterson has done specifically is set it up that if you question his book “The Circle Maker,” than you are questioning a work of God.
This palor trick of vision casting is very popular among the seeker friend and Emergent church leaders of the day. It is used to keep the goats in lock and step and to keep anyone with any biblical discernment feeling that they cannot question the churches leadership without first questioning God. Remember don’t touch the anointed one (sarcasm).
To try and make this palor trick of vision casting complete Batterson tries further down on page 20 to try and tie his grandfather’s praying for him in with Honi and making prayer circles. He tries to establish a connection that his grandfather was praying circles around him to Honi maing circles in the sand to make a demand to God for rain. This is a poor attempt to justify psychobabble.
After Batterson tries to sell us on God speaking to his spirit he tells us the following; “Honi the circle maker was like a revelation of the power of prayer. It gave me a new vocabulary, a new imagery, a new methodology. It not only inspired me to pray bold prayers but also helped me pray with more perseverance.”
So I guess Honi not God or His Word inspires Batterson in prayer? Why do we need a new revelation of the power of Prayer? Does not God’s Word give us enough of a revelation and power on prayer? Do I need a new vocabulary, imagery, or methodology? NO! I don’t and neither do you. Everything we need to know about prayer and how to pray and to be inspired to pray about is found in the God’s Word not in Batterson’s book of fables.
At the end of this segment of Chapter 3 Batterson leaves us with the story of Israelites marching around the walls of Jericho. What Batterson does here in trying to set us up for the next segment of Chapter 3 is literally take the story of the Walls of Jericho and try and apply it to us today. Sorry, the story about the Walls of Jericho and the Israelites marching around them is not about us at all. This story was meant to show the power of God for a certain time in history and for the power of God to be reveled for a certain people, the Israelites, not us. What Batterson is doing here is very simply reading himself into the biblical text. This is another very common palor trick of teachers like Mark Batterson, and other seeker friendly Emergent types. What they are actually doing when applying themselves to the biblical text is appeasing one of Maslow’s scale of felt needs not actually preaching or teaching a biblical message. In this case it fits Batterson’s agenda to teach that the story of the Walls of Jericho is about us and applies to us today not for the Israelites. Thus fulfilling one of Maslow’s felt needs.
In our next review we will be looking at the section of Chapter 3 called “Jericho March” pages 20 to 21.
