Northwestern Book Stores Promote False Teaching
Published March 23, 2009 by Pastor Adam Gislason
Great Adventure Ministries
Last week before leaving on vacation, I walked into one of the NBS located in the Twin Cities. Honestly, I was shocked. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing-not just in the book aisles as I searched for Joel Rosenberg’s “Inside The Revolution” and Mark Hitchcock’s, “The Late Great United States” to read on vacation, but even more so what I was seeing front and center as I walked into the store.
I’m sad to report that false teaching permeates NBS and has become the norm in many Christian book stores and publishers all across America. It’s common today when you walk into Christian book stores like NBS to see the promotion of false teachers such as “The Shack’s” William P. Young, Joel Osteen, Rhonda Byrnes, T.D. Jakes, Joyce Meyer, John Avanzini, Benny Hinn, Neal Donald Walsh, Kenneth Hagin, Charles Capps, Oral Roberts, Kenneth and Gloria Copeland, Paul and Jan Crouch, John Hagee, Rod Parsley, Todd Bentley, Paula White, Fred Price, Jerry Savelle, Robert Tilton, Marilyn Hickey, Morris Cerullo, Miles Munroe, Jesse Duplantis, Steve Munsey, Ken Clement, Ed Young, Thomas Merton, Henri Nouwen and St. Teresa Avila.
It’s common to see the promotion of false teachers from the Emerging Church Movement such as N.T. Wright, John Howard Yoder, Stanley Hauerwas, Ryan Bolger, Wilbert Shenk, Brian McLaren, Rob Bell, Tony Jones, Doug Pagitt, Erwin McManus, Dan Kimball, Scot McKnight, Elizabeth O’Connor, Nancey Murphy, Leonard Sweet, Richard Foster, Dallas Willard, Donald Miller and Phyllis Tickle.
And we wonder why the church is so messed up!
I don’t know about you, but I get this sick-to-my-stomach feeling every time I go through the NBS doors and I have come to a point where I can no longer support NBS or any other Christian book store or publisher that promotes false teaching that goes directly against the Word of God.
A good friend of mine, who works at one of the NBS in the Twin Cities and who shares the same concern, checked me out and we got to talking about the false teaching that keeps flowing through NBS which led to a discussion on the “The Shack.” He said something that stuck with me that I won’t soon forget. He said, “It’s frightening enough that this book is sold here as a “Christian” book, but what’s even more frightening is that it’s ranked so high on “Christian” best seller lists.” For example, “The Shack” Ranked #4 on Christian Best Sellers Association. You may also be interested in knowing that the author of “The Shack”, William P. Young, has just recently admitted that he Rejects Biblical Substitutionary Atonement.
Some of you may be wondering why Great Adventure Ministries links to the secular Amazon.com for our resources. When we first started this discernment ministry back in May 2008, we linked our resources to Christianbook.com. It didn’t take long to start seeing the promotion of false teaching all over their website. I can remember thinking to myself, “What’s going on with Christian book stores these days? They all seem to be promoting false teaching right along with Biblical teaching!”
To make a long story short-through a lot of prayer and consideration, we decided that it was better to support a secular company that doesn’t proclaim to be “Christian” vs. a company that promotes both Biblical teaching and false teaching that claims to be a “Christian Book Store.” Our philosophy is simple: If you’re going to be a “Christian Book Store”, than only promote “Christian” books that line up with the truth found in the Bible. Otherwise don’t claim to be a “Christian Book Store”-be a secular book store because that’s who you really are.
It’s time for Christian books stores like NBS and others to repent and start exercising Biblical discernment. My sense is that a lot of these false teachings exist in Christian book stores today because (1) their gate keepers have been deceived into believing that false teaching is Biblical teaching and (2) these books that promote false teaching are so popular in many churches today, that they dare not promote them or risk losing revenue. The Bible says that the love of money is “the” root of all kinds of evil.
Other Related Articles
Be Careful What You Buy In Christian Bookstores
Pagan Books Sold Through Online Christian Outlets
“The Shack” Ranked #4 on Christian Best Sellers Association
“The Shack” Author Rejects Biblical Substitutionary Atonement
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March 27, 2009 at 7:43 pm
Hello,
With you all the way. Don’t forget that in the End Times the wheat will grow with the tares. Jesus said Take care you are not deceived’. May God give you strength and wisdom
Sincerely
Win Sayers
March 9, 2010 at 7:10 am
Hello Adam and Win,
I agree with your observations. Discernment during the End Times will be required, as you infer Win Sayers.
One vacation day in 1984, my husband and I were in Sedona, Arizona. There on a personal tour the guide showed us all the sites of the Anasazi “Ancient Ones” Indians, or Puebloan peoples. In our visit, “spiritualism” seemed strong from the unknown source. Our guide explained that she has a book of an old religion she wanted me to share, since I showed interest. When I read it, I couldn’t read one-fourth of it for feeling sick to my stomach. Discerning that it was the source of an evil spirit, I threw the book out.
The point is that there are books being distributed through the public and not necessarily through book stores. I did not have to go to a spiritual book store to find it. We need to hinder the spirit of falsehood everywhere.
Each day we should pray against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.” (Ephesians 6:12)
God bless the work that you do, Adam.
April 1, 2009 at 12:37 pm
Over a year ago, I witnessed Northwestern Bookstore in Edina, MN selling a little Roman Catholic prayerbook to the Queen of Heaven. I told the staff that this book is blasphemy and that there is no reason to poison the minds of Christians by carrying this book. I even showed it on the spot to another patron who walked by and wondered what all the commotion was about. He looked at this demonic little book and instantly knew I was right. He shook his head in agreement and walked away. Then, a staff member comes over and listens to my biblical objections. He replied, Well, we are trying to sell books and they aren’t necessarily Christian books” etc. I objected and replied that the predominate theme of this bookstore was supposed to be Christian. The staff manager rejected my argument sorry to say.
Northwestern bookstore will carry prayerbooks to the Queen of Heaven, but they refuse to carry Chick Tracts exposing the evils of Roman Catholicism. What’s up with that picture?
Also, NCB carries all sorts of Latter Rain, Emergent Church, Word-of-Faith, and Purpose-Driven anti-christ books. It isn’t just books written by homosexual and new age authors. They will sell anything as long as it brings them profit. In the Day of Judgment, the staff, management and owners of Northwestern Christian(?) Bookstore will have hell to pay.
April 1, 2009 at 7:08 pm
Pastor Adam:
Thank you for sharing your article and concerns.
Years ago, all of the major Christian bookstores made changes and removed authors and books, including Northwestern. But I knew then that if they failed to monitor their intake, they would end up worse than before.
While competition between Christian and secular bookstores is fierce (which is part of the reason why so many Christian bookstores have closed their doors), I believe God is judging the entire Christian bookstore industry.
Sadly, it is more than making the financial “bottom line,” it is an integral part of the apostasy.
God bless,
Bud Press, Director
Christian Research Service
December 25, 2009 at 1:42 pm
False teaching is everywhere. Praise God for
his Truth in the Word. The False teachers wlll
have a payday in due time.
Praise King Jesus
February 11, 2010 at 6:58 am
Just discovered your blog. Interesting writing. While I’ll admit that there are some issues with the current state of bookstores – both Christian and otherwise, what is so unGodly about the emergent church movement? Maybe I need to poke around your website a little more. I’m a current Fuller Seminary student who has had the privilege of studying under several of the “emergent” people you listed. I have found them to be passionate Christian people, living out their lives for the advancement of the Kingdom of God.
February 11, 2010 at 8:50 pm
Hi Ben,
Thank you for your response. All I can tell you is do your homework. I wish I had time to tell you our whole story, but I will try to give you the Reader’s Digest version. My wife Amelia and I are 41 & 42 years old. About 20 years ago, we were deceived into the New Apostolic Reformation/Word of Faith of Movement. We really thought at the time we were following the Lord. Everything that we were taught sounded Christian, looked Christian and felt Christian at the time. In 2003, through a whole series of events, the Lord woke us up from the great deception we were in. Since that time, I have studied movements such as Alpha, Contemplative Prayer, Catholicism, Dominionism, Ecumenical, Emerging Church, Kingdom Now Theology, New Age, New Apostolic Reformaton/Third Wave, Occult, Reconstruction, Replacement, Restoration, Seeker Sensitive/Church Growth, Self-Esteem, Theophostic Prayer Ministry and Word of Faith movements. We believe more today than we did in 2003 that there is a great end times deception going through the church that is fueling the apostate church and paving the way for the coming of the Antichrist. This is why I do what I do today through Great Adventure Ministries.
If you do your homework, you can trace many of the current false teachings and movements that are threatening the church today back to the teachings of Nobel Peace Prize winner, Norman Vincent Peale, which trace all the way back to the early church and to the Garden of Eden where all false teachings and movements have their root source in unbelief. Many Christians are unaware that Norman Vincent Peale (Positive Thinking Movement) influenced Robert Schuller (Self-Esteem Movement) who influenced Bill Hybels (Seeker Sensitive and Church Growth Movement) and C. Peter Wagner (New Apostolic Reformation and Church Growth Movement) who influenced Rick Warren (Seeker Sensitive and Church Growth Movement) who influenced our latest movement in the church Brian McClaren (Emerging Church Movement). And mixed in with many of these movements is of course a movement that has been around for a long time and that’s the Word of Faith movement-better known as the health, wealth and prosperity gospel that was started by Kenneth Hagen, who plagiarized the writings of E.W. Kenyon and who’s teachings are being carried out today by people like Kenneth Copeland, Oral Roberts, Joel Osteen, Benny Hinn, Todd Bentley, Joyce Meyer, Creflo Dollar and many other Word of Faith teachers.
I would simply challenge you to study long and hard the doctrines of the Emerging (Emergent) Church/Contemplative Prayer movement to see if these doctrines really line up with the core doctrines of the Bible. In addition to our False Teaching and Resources page, here is a ministry that would be very helpful to you in doing your research:
http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/
If you have any questions or if I can help you in any other way, please feel free to contact me.
Blessings,
Pastor Adam Gislason
Great Adventure Ministries
(763) 568-2144
gamincinfo@gmail.com
March 15, 2010 at 11:00 pm
Just a note to thank you for adding a link to my article, “Be Careful What You Buy In Christian Bookstores.” Your article is right on target! Bravo!
Grace & peace,
Marsha West