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“Phyllis Tickle on Feeding the God Within Us
(Go directly to the video below)
Christian Research Institute, just posted a blog referring to a message by Phyllis Tickle. (This is not necessarily a “breaking news” item, but it is an important one.) Phyllis Tickle is one of the more influential and radical of the leaders in the Emerging Church “conversation.” (She now uses the term “Emergence Christianity.”)

On May 3, 200, she spoke at the morning service at Mars Hill (where Rob Bell is the senior pastor). The title of her message was “A Treasure We Do Not Understand” and one her main points of emphasis was the femininity of God. In this message, she also describes the indwellng of the Holy Spirit as an “erotic relationship.” (The ABI Intro #1 video contains several clips from this message.)

The following is the transcript of the part of the message noted in the blog:

And in many ways when we come to the [communion] table we’re about to come to, what we are doing…on the night before He was betrayed, He took bread; and He broke it and gave it to them and said, “This is my body broken for you”. And afterward, He took the cup and He said, “This is the cup of salvation, the cup of the New Covenant; it is my blood shed for you for the remission of sins. Take this in remembrance of me”. And so we…and as oft as you do it you shall drink the Lord’s death until He comes again.

As we’re about to do this, let us remember what we are doing. We not only celebrate that death and that promise of return, but we are feeding by eating God (which is what we’re doing here)…by eating the body and blood of our God, we are feeding the God within us; for as we take those elements, the Spirit also feeds within us and is reinvigorated as he, or she, or it is by our faith.

It is important to note that the theology of Mrs. Tickle regarding the nature of The Lord’s Table appears to be thoroughly Roman Catholic in that she uses the language of “transubstantiation” (the view that the bread and wine mystically change into the literal body and blood of Christ).

Also, when she refers to “feeding the God within us” this choice of phrasing feels more like the language of Eastern Mysticism than strictly referring to the “indwelling Holy Spirit.”

Obviously, this is very troubling when many would probably consider her to be an “evangelical” - and many more would say this of Rob Bell. Actually, her entire message marks a significant departure from historical, conservative evangelicalism.

A video with the audio from Mrs. Tickle’s message can be viewed below.

A transcript of the entire message can be found here:
A Treasure We Do Not Understand - transcript
Dave James