On September 5-7, 2023, Ganoune Diop, who is supposed to be contending for religious liberty for all members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, was enjoying the 2023 G20 Interfaith Summit in Pune, India. Watch the video below—if you can stomach it, that is.
The meeting opens with two eastern meditation sessions, with a primordial sound mantra playing during the first one—to get summit attendees to connect with ‘higher consciousness.’ This part is moderated by Dr. Gautam Bapat.
3:20 The goal is to transcend the barriers of the space time and go beyond the mind. In other words, to venture into the spirit world in search of personal enlightenment.
3:51 “We become one. We transcend the deeper layers of the mind and become one with absolute reality.”
4:21 “We get enormous amounts of energy, enthusiasm, and power from within.” There it is. Call it yoga, or eastern meditation, by the second session they will have you looking for enlightenment within yourself. This is the domain of the forces of darkness, the sworn enemy of God, masquerading as an angel of light.
6:09 They are encouraging people to ‘go into the silence’, the giving of self over to progressive spirituality. This is the very thing that Rick Howard warned the church about, in his book The Omega Rebellion.
7:10 Immediately after this spiritual seance, Ganoune Diop is invited to speak to the audience. He is introduced as a Seventh-day Adventist leader known for his work in Interfaith dialogue. Friends, beware of dialogue with dangerous ‘religions.’ This is not Paul on Mars Hill, preaching Christ crucified and the Everlasting Gospel. Far from it. Diop is introduced as advocating for religious freedom (such as what we just witnessed) and promoting dialogue among the different religious groups and addressing issues related to Human Rights and social justice.” Human Rights is code for the United Nations Human Rights Declaration. Social justice is a grab-bag of left wing political goodies.
8:06 Diop begins his talk praising...wait for it...the United Nations as paragons of peace (Jeremiah 6:14). He says that Judaism, Islam, Christianity, Buddhism and Hinduism are all connected to peace. He calls for human solidarity, one humanity, and one human family. This is Oneism, a progressive spirituality devoid of biblical distinctions. God is the God of distinctions. God is Binary. On Mars Hill, Paul presented the distinction between spiritual confusion (Acts 17:27) and the Almighty Creator God (24-26) and His Son who alone can bring peace.
“Although God overlooked the ignorance of earlier times, He now commands all people everywhere to repent. For He has set a day when He will judge the world with justice by the Man He has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising Him from the dead” (vv. 30-31).
Can you imagine Paul telling a group of people who had just participated in a false spiritual exercise that they are connected to peace and can make valuable contributions to human solidarity and healing through their (false) religions? I can’t either.
Mixing Adventism and pagan mysticism is blending the opposites. Adventism was given to promote true spirituality (the State of the Dead is central to this). There is no harmony between Christ & Belial. No harmony between Believer and unbeliever; no harmony between the temple of God and idols. No communion between light and darkness (2 Corinthians 6:14-16). God has not called us to uncleanness—but to holiness (1 Thessalonians 4:7).
14:02 The video concludes with a presentation promoting Saint Dnyaneshwar, a young Eastern Indian yogi who left his body at the age 21 and became ‘divine’.
I close with this question. Is this really what you want your church ‘leaders’ doing? Or would you prefer that they actually share the gospel like Paul did, and stand up for liberty of conscience and bodily autonomy in the face of coercion?
Religious liberty was designed to provide freedom to worship. It was never designed to become dangerous ‘spiritual’ affirmation where you put Jesus Christ on the ecumenical shelf at Mars Hill or Pune, India and leave Him there as one among equals. God forbid. If this is how you must safeguard religious liberty, I say cancel the PARL department tomorrow. I want nothing to do with it.
We are grateful for the freedoms we have enjoyed in this fine land, but you don't need religious liberty in order to be faithful to God. Down through history, millions have been faithful to God in the face of severe persecution, often paying the ultimate price for their faith.
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“And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them” (Ephesians 5:11).