My Writing Corner

Reply to Deann

I received a comment on the “Dangerous Books” article earlier this month.

Deann
September 7, 2012 at 8:17 am
Ann Voskamp does NOT preach nor believe in Panentheism. And woe to the person who cannot see God’s hand in all that is around him/her,the blessings that He has given in our day in day out lives. That does not mean that everything is God.I think it is sad that you (and others from the links) have taken your high and mighty legalistic stand against other believers in such a way as to tarnish their testimony. The enemy is enjoying this very much. If you knew Ann personally you would realize how foolish this thought is. To think that you can “fill in the dots” from what she hasn’t said by what she has is to think that YOU are God!!!! A very scary stand to take. Shame on you and others who use your blogs to tear down the name of Christ and those who want to honor and love Him. Shame on you indeed.

I full well expect that this comment will be taken down, or tore to shreds with the legalistic talk that has preceded this article.

***

Deann, my reply to your comment comes late due to the fact that I’m a student and I have a demanding schedule, so I must give priority to other things. May I ask, have you read Ann Voskamp’s book? Do you know her personally?
You repeatedly use the term “legalistic” to label everything, in an attempt to dismiss the facts I presented, and hide the reality that you cannot provide any backup proof for your comment that Voskamp “does NOT preach nor believe in Panentheism”.

I did not “fill in the dots” when I addressed Voskamp’s writings, and neither did the other authors I linked to. They simply cite her very own words and weigh that against the standard of the Bible. Sadly, it turns out she does have obvious panentheistic views, which are not reconcilable with Biblical teaching.

It is a departure from the faith once for all delivered to the saints” (source).

If you haven’t read the previous articles, here are some excerpts from another article, which show specific pages from the book, that are panentheistic in content.

Panentheism is the belief that God is in everything. It is to be distinguished from pantheism that teaches that God is everything. The very popular Emergent movement is panentheistic as is New Age theology. Since God is in everything, then God can be discovered and understood through encounters with nature. Ann Voskamp echoes Monk Kidd when she states that God is “present in all things,” even “sewage flowing downriver” (p. 110-111).

My notes taken as I read Voskamp reveal panentheism on many pages (16, 31, 54, 89, 109, 110, 112, 118, 119, 124, 137, 138, 185, and 195). It is no exaggeration to say that the entire book is written from a panentheistic perspective. She even finds Christ in everyone, including the lost encountered in the inner city: “A long night doing what we’ve come to do, to bless Christ in the other” (Voskamp: 185). [But] The Bible claims that only believers are indwelt by Christ through the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:9). Voskamp’s panentheism spills into universalism as it does in Emergent and the New Age. It colors everything she teaches.

She claims an “inner eye” that sees God in a panentheistic way: “If my inner eye has God seeping up through all things, then can’t I give thanks for anything? . . . The art of deep seeing makes gratitude possible” (Voskamp: 118).

Not only that, but she also has blatantly offensive sensual topics in her book. Here is one of many examples:

The last chapter of One Thousand Gifts, “The Joy of Intimacy,” Voskamp devotes to what she calls ”intimacy” with God. We share the following with you not to shock you for theatrical sake – its to show where the “new” Christianity is heading.  We think it important, in light of the many young women who are reading this book, to quote Voskamp’s view of “intimacy” with God which she also calls the “mystery of that romance.” Voskamp says:

Mystical union. This, the highest degree of importance. God as Husband in sacred wedlock, bound together, body and soul, fed by His body, quenched by His blood . . . God, He has blessed – caressed. I could bless God – caress with thanks. To know Him the way Adam knew Eve (pp. 213, 216-217).

I even spared you the more descriptive parts which I didn’t want to put on this blog, and from my opinion are outrageous, to say the least.

To read the full articles where I got these sources, see these links:

Article on Voskamp (1)

Article on Voskamp (2)

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2 thoughts on “Reply to Deann

  1. I started reading this book and there was just something about it I couldn’t get into. I liked the notion of creating a list of the little gifts God has given me, but something about her writing I didn’t personally care for. There is such of fine line when writing about things of a theological nature, it’s so easy to write the wrong thing. Writing is such a huge responsibility.

    1. I so greatly agree! Although I’d never though about it in this WAY before. Finding out that these books are filled with this sort of thing, confusing and possibly leading astray the readers and possibly even the writers themselves, makes the writer in me get all burning passionately about writing good clean God-honoring literature! But what you said about writing being a huge responsibility is SO DEEP!

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