Crisis in the Church: Confronting the Spiritual Confusion
Lesson Overview
Crisis in the Church: Confronting the Spiritual Confusion with Dr. Ron Carlson
This standalone message is given by Dr. Ron Carlson of Christian Ministries International, a companion to his son Jason’s talk on the emergent church. Carlson argues that many churches, trying to reach the surrounding culture, have blended the gospel with practices and ideas drawn from other religions and philosophies, and he calls the church back to the gospel and the authority of God’s Word. Use this overview to review the key points after watching the full video. This is a critique of other religions and of trends in the church from a conservative evangelical standpoint; see the note for students.
The One Way Home
Carlson opens with the 1970 Apollo 13 crisis: three astronauts, crippled and losing oxygen, were saved only by following Houston’s single specific instruction to move into the lunar module and use it as a lifeboat. He uses this as a picture of the gospel: there was only one way to be saved, and they received it with joy rather than trying alternatives. He argues that too many churches have lost that one message, creating “hybrid gospels” that mix Christianity with the culture in order to draw crowds, and that the world is perishing while the church busies itself being “relevant.”
Yoga and Eastern Meditation in the Church
Carlson’s most detailed concern is the entry of yoga and Eastern meditation into churches. Speaking as someone who studied Hindu philosophy and yoga academically, he argues that yoga is not merely exercise but a roughly 2,000-year-old Hindu spiritual practice (the Sanskrit word meaning “union” with the Hindu conception of God), designed to quiet the mind and dissolve the individual self into an impersonal universe. He summarizes Hinduism and Buddhism as teaching that the physical world is an illusion (maya) and that ultimate reality is an impersonal oneness, and he argues this is incompatible with the biblical doctrine of a personal Creator and a real creation.
He contends that Eastern meditation is always an inward, subjective descent into the self, and sets against it Jeremiah 17:9 (the heart is deceitful) and Romans 3:23 (all have sinned), arguing that the answer is not found within. These are strong claims about other religions from a Christian apologetic standpoint; Hindus, Buddhists, and many Christians who practice yoga or contemplative prayer would describe these practices very differently. See the note for students.
True Biblical Meditation
In contrast, Carlson explains what he sees as biblical meditation. Where Eastern meditation empties the mind and turns inward, biblical meditation (Psalm 19:14, Psalm 119:97) fills the mind and turns outward and upward to God and His Word. Drawing on Webster’s older definition, he describes it as study and “rumination”, chewing on the Word of God the way a cow chews its cud, taking in nourishment from Scripture and applying it to daily life. He connects it to 2 Timothy 2:15, “study to show yourself approved,” and 2 Corinthians 5:7, that we walk by faith, not by sight.
The Prosperity Gospel
Carlson next critiques the “health, wealth, and prosperity” gospel, the teaching that God guarantees material blessing and that lack of it signals sin or weak faith. He recounts an interview on a Christian network where he was asked, on live television, whether anything was wrong with prosperity theology, and answered with stories rather than by attacking people. He tells of Christians he met who suffered for their faith: a pastor in Laos whose family was killed by communists for refusing to renounce Christ (recounted here soberly, as a testimony of martyrdom), and a highly educated couple in Shanghai who lost everything in the Cultural Revolution yet treasured an old hymnal as their only spiritual food for years, reading hymns like “I Have Decided to Follow Jesus.” His point: following Christ may cost everything, so a gospel that promises only comfort is, in his words, a counterfeit, because “if you cannot preach it to every person on earth, it is not the gospel.”
Does It Matter What You Believe? Worldview and the Value of Human Life
Carlson turns to the claim that all religions are basically the same. He argues, citing A.W. Tozer, that no people rises above its religion and no religion rises above its concept of God, so worldview shapes how people live. He illustrates with his relief work on the Thai-Cambodian border in 1980, where (he says) the people caring for hundreds of thousands of refugees were overwhelmingly Christian organizations, and argues that a worldview grounded in humans made in God’s image, for whom Christ died, uniquely motivates such compassion. He contrasts this with his readings of Hindu and Buddhist teaching on suffering and the self.
These comparisons are sharply drawn and one-sided. Carlson uses vivid anecdotes and blames pantheistic worldviews for social neglect and poverty; Hindus, Buddhists, and scholars would strongly dispute these causal claims and could point to deep compassion traditions in their own faiths (and to Christian societies’ own failures). Students should take his underlying point (that beliefs have consequences for how we treat people) as worth pondering, while treating his characterizations of specific religions and cultures as a contested outside view. See the note.
Carlson also critiques a religion of “good works” as unable to give assurance, using Mother Teresa and Catholic devotion as his example and setting against it Ephesians 2:8-9 (saved by grace through faith, not works). This is his Protestant critique; Catholics understand grace, works, and their honoring of Mary very differently, and his portrayal of a widely revered figure is pointed and contested.
The Uniqueness of Christ
Carlson closes by asking what makes Jesus unique. He offers an extended tribute (a version of the well-known “One Solitary Life” reflection): that though Jesus wrote no book, held no office, and never traveled far, He has influenced art, music, literature, and history more than anyone, inspiring the great artists and composers and shaping civilization. He anchors it in Romans 5:8, “God demonstrates His love in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” His final illustration contrasts Buddhism and Christianity through a friend’s image: Buddha stood on the shore and taught a drowning man to swim, but Jesus dove in, rescued him, brought him to shore, and then taught him to swim so he could rescue others. His plea is that the church stop mixing the gospel with other things and return to proclaiming Christ.
Key Terms
Hybrid gospel: Carlson’s term for a gospel blended with cultural or other-religious elements.
Yoga (as Carlson defines it): a Hindu spiritual practice aimed at union with an impersonal divine, which he distinguishes from mere exercise.
Biblical meditation as rumination: filling the mind with Scripture and “chewing” on it, contrasted with emptying the mind inwardly.
The prosperity gospel: the teaching that God guarantees health and wealth, which Carlson calls a counterfeit.
Worldview: one’s basic concept of God and reality, which Carlson (citing Tozer) says shapes how people live.
The uniqueness of Christ: Carlson’s theme that Jesus stands apart from every other figure in history.
Verses to Know
2 Corinthians 5:7, we walk by faith, not by sight. Jeremiah 17:9, the heart is deceitful above all things. Psalm 119:97, oh how I love your law; it is my meditation all the day. 2 Timothy 2:15, study to show yourself approved to God. Ephesians 2:8-9, by grace you are saved through faith, not by works. Romans 5:8, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Takeaway
Carlson argues that the church is in crisis because it has blended the gospel with yoga and Eastern mysticism, prosperity teaching, and a tolerance that treats all religions as the same, and that the remedy is to recover biblical meditation on God’s Word, reject counterfeit gospels, recognize that worldview shapes how people live, and return to proclaiming the unique Christ who alone saves by grace.