Bruno Groning Circle of Friends, Why is this wrong?

[luisfigueroa24]

OK, Last year while visiting my relatives in California one of my cousins who was very involved in the church told my wife that she was not going to church anymore. When asked why, she said that she saw some things that she did not agreed with and she was very disappointed. After some time, she posted on facebook that she had joined this group called Group of Friends and that she was going to Germany to attend some conferences. I ask her what this group was about and she said that it is a spiritual group that gets together to meditate and help you connect, renew and strengthen your relationship with God, and that it was “an spiritual group not a religion because religions are man made”. then I pointed out that by definition religions can not be man made and that there is one true religion and she knew what it was. then all my other non Catholic cousins jumped in and treat me as if I was attacking her. Now, she came back from Germany and is advertising this tour of Bruno Groning Circle of Friends conferences that is going to be around Mexico and our family in Mexico should attend to. Now this all sounds like new age to me and I know this does not go with Catholic teachings, but what is really wrong with this and how should I approach this topic with my non Catholic relatives? she also provided this website www.bruno-groening.com

 

[bnbkaine]

I love when people say that religion is man-made or that one shouldn’t follow the Church because it is man-made.

I say, “Yes, it is man made. God, the Son, fully divine and fully MAN create the Church.” People don’t seem to say much after that. I don’t know why…

 

[luisfigueroa24]

Re: Bruno Groning Circle of Friends, Why is this wrong?
I love when people say that religion is man-made or that one shouldn’t follow the Church because it is man-made.

I say, “Yes, it is man made. God, the Son, fully divine and fully MAN create the Church.” People don’t seem to say much after that. I don’t know why…

.

Thank you, very good point, but she didn’t say not to follow the church, she said religion is man made. They are quiet tolerant of other denominations including us Catholics.

This was her original post:

Yazmin XXXXXXX Exited to be chosen to go to Germany w/COF… its an honor.
February 18 at 6:57pm · Comment · Like

This is her answer to what COF means:

Yazmin XXXXXXXX
COF means Circle of Friends, which mean that I been going to this group for about 2 1/2 years. Its a spirituall group that guides you to the divine path. It helps me to not accept the negative & allow the good in my life. Its not a religious group, its a spiritual group. Religion divides because is man made, the spiritual we all have, we just need to conniect to God again.
February 18 at 8:34pm

Some of my questions to her were:

Religion is man made? so, are you saying that the Bible is not the inspired word of God? and that God did not revealed Himself to the prophets? and that He did not become man and died for us? to me there is one true religion and you know what it is

This were some of their answers:

Laura XXXXXXX
Yikes…sounds like this conversation can get pretty intense. Luis, I don’t think at all that Yazmin was trying to say that. But I do believe that everyone is entitled to their own opinion. =)
February 19 at 10:17am

Marthae XXXXXXXXXXXX
Down Luis down! Religion is man made! The bible doesn’t belong to any religion. It’s the word of GOD.
February 19 at 10:20am

Yazmin XXXXXXX
Wow, Luis… My total meaning of things…you are getting wrong. By all means I believe in Jesus, I believe in the word of God, which is the bible. I really didn’t go there, but once someone opens more of their eyes, they will see more & be more aware by what God tells you (instincts) not what man says. (Not all men got the message of Jesus … See Morewhen he came only some, why do you think they sacrificed him? I really don’t want to go into that, because is so in depth. Just open your heart & look withing. Love & thats all…
February 19 at 10:30am

As you can see their replies don’t even make any sense. Now, she has been through a lot of bad things in her life, things that she didn’t deserved at all since she’s always been a really good person. But I think that all that plus whatever it is that she saw in her parish left her vulnerable to this type of “spiritual stuff”

 

[Berean2]

“It helps me to not accept the negative & allow the good in my life.” Sounds a lot like positive thinking (aka Pealism, which nowadays has been repackaged as “The Secret”). I went over to his site and read around some: the “god” he refers to is generic (no mention of The Gospel or Jesus Christ) and a lot of what he says sounds like Mary Baker Eddy. It also sounds like possibly the sort of thing Johanna Michaels wrote about in her book The Beautiful Side of Evil. If your sister has gone thru a lot of really bad stuff, and she’s not really rooted in the Triune God and in His truth, then she could easily be lured by someone like Groening (it happened on a national scale in Germany in '33: there was tremendous suffering, and the people flocked to Hitler, the phony savior, and for a while, he actually did do “miracles” for them, the first 7 years, but it was a Faustian Bargain, and in '39, for 6 hellish years, they had to pay the Piper…).

Anyway, I always wonder how people are going to avoid “accepting the negative” in life, bec. whether we like it or not, we live in a fallen universe, and the Thorns & Thistles of Genesis 3 abound all over the place. Suffering ain’t no picnic, but even the Son of God Himself had spades of it in His life. (Which is not to say that one shouldn’t try to make lemonade out of the lemons…)

 

[PJY86]

Luis,
Religion is simply a word we give the relationship between man and God. To say that all religion is man-made is to say that God Himself has not established means by which we can relate to him. But of course, Yazmin and the others seem to think that God has established some sort of relationship with them. So, what they really are rejecting is institutionalized religion. So there claim is something more like, “All institutionalized religion is man-made.” However, if they accept the scriptures, they must accept that God Himself made a covenant with the Israelites. That is, He set up rituals that must be performed by a priesthood in order that the people can be related to God. He also commanded that a temple be built where these rituals could be performed. This amounts to God setting up an institutional religion

If they reject this, then they must reject Scripture. If they accept this, then the only thing they could try to say is that all religion these days is man-made. But this is far from obvious. They need to prove this. The New Testament is the account of precisely the foundation of a covenant with a people, who are the New Jerusalem, called the Church. There is no talk of meeting God on one’s own terms, but rather being baptized into the one Church. There is talk of one submitting to a specific set of teachings and practices in order to be incorporated into the life of Christ. Any minutely thoughtful reading of scripture will yield this information. You cannot get around the institutional aspect of the Church in scripture.

I hope this helps you, Luis.

 

[luisfigueroa24]

Thank you, that helps a lot. I will bring that up next time we have a conversation. How about this Bruno Groning and his Circle of Friends? Do you or any one else knows anything about them? It looks like something new age to me, but I don’t know much of that sort of things. How is that this is wrong? What are the weak points about their teachings? How can I attack this ideology without making my cousin feel attacked or bad about it? I guess I am also worry because my sister has also shown interest in this.

 

[benidict]

OK, Last year while visiting my relatives in California one of my cousins who was very involved in the church told my wife that she was not going to church anymore. When asked why, she said that she saw some things that she did not agreed with and she was very disappointed. After some time, she posted on facebook that she had joined this group called Group of Friends and that she was going to Germany to attend some conferences. I ask her what this group was about and she said that it is a spiritual group that gets together to meditate and help you connect, renew and strengthen your relationship with God, and that it was “an spiritual group not a religion because religions are man made”. then I pointed out that by definition religions can not be man made and that there is one true religion and she knew what it was. then all my other non Catholic cousins jumped in and treat me as if I was attacking her. Now, she came back from Germany and is advertising this tour of Bruno Groning Circle of Friends conferences that is going to be around Mexico and our family in Mexico should attend to. Now this all sounds like new age to me and I know this does not go with Catholic teachings, but what is really wrong with this and how should I approach this topic with my non Catholic relatives? she also provided this website www.bruno-groening.com

sorry, this dude looks like a serial killer i would tell them, RUN AWAY! RUN AWAY! couldnt resist. Peace

 

[sonettegarbin]

“It helps me to not accept the negative & allow the good in my life.” Sounds a lot like positive thinking (aka Pealism, which nowadays has been repackaged as “The Secret”). I went over to his site and read around some: the “god” he refers to is generic (no mention of The Gospel or Jesus Christ) and a lot of what he says sounds like Mary Baker Eddy. It also sounds like possibly the sort of thing Johanna Michaels wrote about in her book The Beautiful Side of Evil. If your sister has gone thru a lot of really bad stuff, and she’s not really rooted in the Triune God and in His truth, then she could easily be lured by someone like Groening (it happened on a national scale in Germany in '33: there was tremendous suffering, and the people flocked to Hitler, the phony savior, and for a while, he actually did do “miracles” for them, the first 7 years, but it was a Faustian Bargain, and in '39, for 6 hellish years, they had to pay the Piper…).

Anyway, I always wonder how people are going to avoid “accepting the negative” in life, bec. whether we like it or not, we live in a fallen universe, and the Thorns & Thistles of Genesis 3 abound all over the place. Suffering ain’t no picnic, but even the Son of God Himself had spades of it in His life. (Which is not to say that one shouldn’t try to make lemonade out of the lemons…)

Thanks Berean2, your inset was very helpful. May we look at the ‘negative’ life expearences of St Paul and gain such insight and understanding which brings knowledge and wisdom in accepting the negative in life. Sue

 

[luisfigueroa24]

Thank you all, it’s been very helpful. It is my cousin who’s been through a lot, not my sister. All my sister said is that she will check it out, but I will warn her about it before she gets into it.