Inculturation:

One of the major activities of the Jesuits involved something called "Inculturation".

Malachi Martin explains it like this:

"The idea was to adapt so severely to the culture of the alien (one who was not a Catholic) that the missionary would acquire the mind of that culture, and would revamp both doctrine and moral practice to fit that alien culture." - The Jesuits, Malachi Martin.

This actually means that the Jesuit would try to be as much like the people in the particular group that he was seeking to win over to his side-as he could. But all the while, he was sneaking in Catholic doctrines, little by little, until the church or group became Catholic in their thinking-without even realizing it! This is one of the tactics that the Jesuits are notorious for.

Acculturation:

And then there is another tactic that the Roman Catholic Church is using called "Acculturation". This is something that means to adapt the practices of your own church-such as your worship format-to the practices of the different cultures or denominations that you are seeking to win over to Catholicism.

In this way, they believe, people will feel "comfortable" in the Catholic church and perhaps eventually join the catholic faith. For instance, Malachi Martin, former Jesuit, tells of how in some Catholic churches now they have coffee afterwards for "socialization time". Their bands play "Blues music-using trombones, kazoos, saxophones and top it off with drums to add a rhythmic foundation." - The Encounter, Malachi Martin.

And a Catholic priest, Andrew Greeley, tells a story of how things have changed in the Catholic church, for the purpose of enlarging their congregations:

"In many new Catholic churches, statutes, the stations (of the cross), and the stained glass windows have either been swept away or reduced to the diagrams or abstractions that would not offend the most fundamental protestant. Reverence and awe have been replaced by often cloying informality; solemnity by 'letting it all hang out' manners. Great music has been replaced by bad pseudo-folk music... As part of the final phase of our acculturation into American life, it became appropriate to abandon the whole mess, to... eliminate the mysteries and the medals, the invocations and the pieties, the blessings and the rosaries, the May crownings and the mumbo jumbo." - How to Save the Catholic Church, Andrew Greeley.

Then we see people in our own Adventist churches complaining because some of our churches have adapted by doing the Eucharist, selling rosaries in our hospitals, doing the stations of the cross... then there is the celebration movement.

I'll come back if I can and explain that tie-in to you, and what it is they are 'REALLY' celebrating and the incorporation of the Charismatic Movement into the churches.

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Celebration Part 2

Usually we associate the word "celebration" with having a party or a general "high time". But in the Catholic mind, the word "celebration" means something else entirely.

I have done extensive research on the subject.

In the book "How to Save the Catholic Church" by Andrew Greeley, the word "celebration" used over and over. First we need to understand that EG White warned that the Alpha of the pantheism in our own church would wax worse and worse into the omega, and that few would recognize this spiritualism for what it really was- in the various forms it would take.

"...the natural world is a sign of God, not merely because God created it, but because God, somehow actually is IN it." How to Save the Catholic Church, pg. 40.

"The catholic religious imagination says that God lurks in every place." - Ibid. pg. 43.

Just like the Baal worshippers of old, the Catholic church (whose teachings were adopted from the ancient mystery religion of Babylon, by the way) sees God in all of nature. "...in the sticks and stones, the sky and the stars, the caves, the dances, in conception, birth, growth, and death... God is still there-not totally encompassed by these material realities but nonetheless totally present in and among them." How to Save the Catholic Church, pg. 48.

Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Jesuit order, believed that one could see God in all things, and spent much of his time trying to do just that. You see, the Catholic church believes that because God supposedly is "in" everything... that this means that everything is something to "celebrate". In fact, when explaining what a true catholic who understands his religion would say if you ask him what his religion means:

"...it means that God loves us and celebrates our life with us and comes to be with us and our families as we celebrate the passage of life and the fact of His love." Ibid. pg. 80,81.

Jesuit Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (who's ideas were said by Malachi Martin to be what was behind the idea of Vatican II) believed in the evolution of humankind towards the "Ultra Human"... He taught that all things were progressing toward perfect unity, until there was "The Omega Cosmic (pantheistic) Christ" which meant that all of mankind together was "God".

Testimonies to Ministers and Gospel Workers, page 364, "Rapidly are men ranging themselves under the banner they have chosen, restlessly waiting and watching the movements of their leaders. There are those who are watching and waiting and working for our Lord's appearing; while the other party are rapidly falling into line under the generalship of the first great apostate. They look for a god in humanity, and Satan personifies the one they seek. [b]Multitudes will be so deluded through their rejection of truth that they will accept the counterfeit. Humanity is hailed as God.[/b]"

Two more quotes and I think you will get the picture:

"The Catholic theologian Richard Mc Brien says, 'The Catholic vision sees God in and through all things: other people, communities, movements, events, places, objects, the world at large, the whole cosmos.... all these are potential carriers of the Divine Presence.." How to Save the Catholic Church, pg. 41.

From the Trappist Monk, Thomas Merton:

"Celebration is not noise. It is not just a spinning head. it is not just individual kicks. it is the creation of a common identity, a common consciousness. Celebration is everybody making joy..."

The Celebration Movement has to do really with creating a common identity, where everyone in all churches are doing the same thing, together. EG White identified pantheism with Theosophy, which is known as the New Age Movement. Jesuit Teilhard de Chardin was known as "Father of the modern New Age Movement".

In the same year the World Council of Church's Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry Document was agreed to by our SDA leadership... The entire SDA 1982 Collegiate Quarterly was put out for all our college and university students to study. The general idea throughout this quarterly was that we, as SDAs need to realize that basically all religions are the same and we ought to rejoice in our common identity with them. (sounds just like Teilhard, doesnt it?) What do you know? I was looking through this quarterly and lets look at pg. 62...

Art Esposito, 'chairman of the Modern Language Department and director of the English Language Institute at Atlantic Union College' [b] tells us how to achieve our 'unique centre of exaltation' -through the creative forces within us. (just so you know, he just told us we need to find the "God within ourselves). And then he goes on to explain that neither you nor I can really know much about God -until we associate with those around us... so lets read now from -pg 62 of this Collegiate quarterly at what Art Esposito has to say:

"Obviously, however, this knowledge can only be shared if possessed. And just here lies a problem: There are as many different views of God as there are individual human beings. [b] As the French theologian philosopher PIERRE TEILHARD DE CHARDIN[b] puts it in his book The Divine Milieu: 'We must never lose sight of it: just as in the experimental zones of the world, men, wrapped up as they are in the universe, each represent in relation to that universe an independent centre of perspective and activity (so that there are as many partial universes as there are individuals), just so in the area of heavenly realities, [b]so filled we are with the same creative and redemptive force that each constitutes a unique centre of exaltation (so that there are as many partial conceptions of God as there are Christian souls.' An individual's conception of God is relative to his or her position in the universe. One's God is never the ultimate, but always part and incomplete.

However, it is possible to enter into communion with a "more complete God' by interrelating with others. But of course our total knowledge of God is limited by the variety of people with whom we interrelate."

Just so you know In case you didn't realize-we were just told by Esposito that we need to learn about God from Jesuit Teilhard de Chardin... and that we cannot have a true picture of God will we realize we are all parts of God and that if we ecumenize with other churches, we will then realize what the complete Omega God is.

Our SDA Ministry Magazine, the official magazine for our SDA ministers had on its cover... a picture of the second coming of Christ called "The Return of the Cosmic King" ... (that term means the New Age Cosmic Christ).

Matthew Fox, former Dominican Priest heartily endorses Teilhard's Cosmic Christ". He even has his own witch on his staff, Miriam Starhawk who is the most well known Wiccan Witchcraft propagandist...

"At a recent summer workshop on creation spirituality in North Carolina there were not only Roman Catholics and Quakers, Anglicans and Methodists, but Southern Baptists [b]and Seventh-Day Adventists." - Matthew Fox, The Coming of the Cosmic Christ, pg. 239.

By the way, Wiccan Witches over and over use the word "celebration" in their literature... they say every event in life is a celebration too. EG White in Great Controversy said spiritualism IS witchcraft and has "invaded churches".

I hope you are getting the picture of what the Celebration Movement is all about?

Claudia Thompson
PO Box 502
Stewartstown PA 17363