Lessons from

Mark Battersons

...

by Robert Rein
August 22, 2016

Forward
The Circle Maker, by Mark Batterson, contains, in my opinion, many errors and misrepresentations of
Scripture. It promotes New Age or Gnostic teachings contrary to Christian doctrine. Judging by the
evidence contained in this paper, I have concluded that the Holy Spirit was not with Mark Batterson while
he wrote The Circle Maker. The book can be misleading to theologians and lay people and should be
critically questioned.
Robert Rein

Contents
1.

Page

Biblical errors in The Circle Maker: ..............................................................................................1.

A. Promises ..................................................................................................................................1.
B. Foolishness of Gods agents .....................................................................................................2.
C. The quail dilemma ...................................................................................................................2.
1. The complainers .................................................................................................................2.
2. Vision casting.....................................................................................................................4.
3. Deception in Christs Church..............................................................................................5.
D. Moses circled the promise........................................................................................................4.
Postures in prayer....................................................................................................................6.
E. Moses return to Egypt ..............................................................................................................7.
F. Elijah and rain ..........................................................................................................................7.
G. Daniel......................................................................................................................................9.
1. The painting .......................................................................................................................9.
2. The seventy-year captivity................................................................................................11.
3. Seeds of our salvation.......................................................................................................12.
4. Praying toward Jerusalem .................................................................................................12.
5. Failure to correctly explain the seventy years/weeks prophecy ..........................................13.
H. Habakkuk ..............................................................................................................................13.

2. The Christians responsibility .........................................................................................................14.

3. What is the Circle Maker? ..............................................................................................................14.
4. The source of The Book of Legends.................................................................................................15.
Christian / Jewish Holy Books Chart............................................................................................16.
A. Laws and myths in the Talmud...............................................................................................18.
i

1. Rain .................................................................................................................................18.
2. Women and children.........................................................................................................19.
3. Lilllith: Adams first wife .................................................................................................19.
4. Talmudic ideas on death ...................................................................................................20.
Conclusion ............................................................................................................................21.
6. Elements of the Honi legend ...........................................................................................................21.
A. Circle prayer ..........................................................................................................................21.
B. Sleep......................................................................................................................................22.
C. Death .....................................................................................................................................22.
D. Magic ....................................................................................................................................22.
E. Pagan influences on Jewish Oral Law.....................................................................................23.
F. Judaism and magic .................................................................................................................25.
1. Magic and witchcraft ........................................................................................................25.
2. Magic and artifacts ...........................................................................................................26.
Magic bowls .....................................................................................................................26.
G. The circle and witchcraft........................................................................................................26.
Casting your magik circle......................................................................................................28.
H. Buddhism and Christianity.....................................................................................................29.
I. A Course in Miracles...............................................................................................................30.
J. Batterson and mystics..............................................................................................................33.
1. A.W. Tozer.......................................................................................................................34.
2. Frank Laubach..................................................................................................................35.
3. Walter Wink.....................................................................................................................36.
7. Battersons sloppy scholarship........................................................................................................40.
8. The R.W. Schambach conundrum...................................................................................................41.
9. Batterson and associations ..............................................................................................................43.
10. Battersons circling in prayer and Christians .................................................................................44.
Endnotes .............................................................................................................................................44.

ii

1. What are the Biblical errors in The Circle Maker?

A. Promises
Mark Batterson uses the word, promises, in a global manner. He presents his opinion of promises when he
says:
Remember the promise in Joshua 1:3 that I circled when I did my prayer walk around Capitol Hill? God
promised Joshua that He would give him every place where he set his foot, but there is a little addendum at
the end of the promise: As I promised Moses. The promise was originally given to Moses . Then it was
transferred to Joshua. In much the same way, all of Gods promises have been transferred to us via Jesus
Christ. While these promises must be interpreted intelligently and applied accurately, there are moments
when the Spirit of God will quicken your spirit to claim a promise that was originally intended for
someone else. So while we have to be careful to blindly claim promises that dont belong to us, our
greatest challenge is that we dont circle the promises we could or should circle.
By the most conservative estimates, there are more than three thousand promises in Scripture. By virtue of
what Jesus Christ accomplished on the cross, every one of them belongs to you. Every one of them has
your name on it. The question is: How many of them have you circled?1
More than 3,000 promises in Scripture? An internet search on Biblical promises led to a variety of numbers:

7,487 promises made by God to man2

54673
8,0004
Hundreds - Here are three questions to ask when reading a promise of God.5
1. Is the promise intended for a specific person or group?
2. Is the promise conditional?
3. Is the promise supported elsewhere in scripture?
[NOTE: This Newspring Church teaching is an excellent source on promises.]

Battersons thinking about promises reminds me of a converted Jewish scholarly man in our church on Long
Island, NY. Arvid needed an answer from God and he followed Gideons example:
36

So Gideon said to God, If You will save Israel by my hand as You have said 37 look, I shall put a fleece
of wool on the threshing floor; if there is dew on the fleece only, and it is dry on all the ground, then I shall
know that You will save Israel by my hand, as You have said. Judges 6:36-37 (NKJV)
Arvid said, at a mens prayer breakfast, that he put out a fleece and nothing happened. Our pastor, Kenneth
Fritjofson, explained to all of us that God has used His actions to suit His purposes and that the accounts in
Scripture are recorded for His glory and are not given to us to replicate.
Mark Batterson seems to have made the same assumptions as Arvid when he said that all the promises in the
Bible belong to us because of Jesus death on the cross. Imagine the disappointment when applying a prayer
for a Scriptural promise that isnt delivered by God. It might be enough to make the person lose faith in God
and turn away from Him and to search for something else.
1

Batterson cites Joshua 1:3 by saying, I was reading the book of Joshua at the time, and one of the promises
jumped off the page and into my spirit.
Im giving you every square inch of the land you set your foot on just as I promised Moses.
The problem with Battersons adoption of Joshua 1:3 is that it was a promise given to Moses and then Joshua
referring to the people of Israel. Heres the context from Joshua 1:2-4:
2

Moses My servant is dead. Now therefore, arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, to the land
which I am giving to themthe children of Israel. 3 Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I
have given you, as I said to Moses. 4 From the wilderness and this Lebanon as far as the great river, the
River Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and to the Great Sea toward the going down of the sun, shall
be your territory.
(NOTE: The above is taken from the New King James Version. Batterson quoted from The Message
which is, surprisingly, omitted from the Scripture quotation versions attributions on the copyright page. Is
it possible that Batterson wanted to avoid the controversy over Pattersons The Message? That omission,
and others identified later in this paper, suggests that Batterson and his editors might have ulterior motives
in misleading his readers. Even Eugene Patterson, author of The Message, includes the promise given in
Joshua 1:2: Im giving to the People of Israel.)
Look at verse 4. It stipulates a vast area but does not list Washington, DC.6
Ive concluded that Battersons book fails to lay an adequate foundation for the study of prayer. The Circle
Maker is more of a superficial How-To book based on unscriptural sources rather than an in-depth
instruction manual based on the Word of God.

B. Foolishness of Gods agents

Batterson says, Drawing prayer circles often looks like an exercise in foolishness.7 He cited Noah, the
Israelites, David, the Magi, Peter and Jesus as looking foolish.
Where is it written that Moses felt foolish in following Gods commands?
Battersons fantastical interpretation of Scripture is compounded by claiming that Moses felt foolish when he
went before Pharaoh, raising a staff over the Red Sea and promising meat to eat for an entire nation of
Israel.8
One might determine that, based on Battersons dependence on oral fantasies in The Book of Legends, drawing
unscriptural prayer circles certainly is foolish. His insufficient scholarship lacks sufficient Biblical references
to support his opinions.

C. The quail dilemma

1. The complainers
One of Battersons most incredible misunderstandings of Scripture is found in his chapter, Cloudy
with a Chance of Quail. The citation on page 222 in the notes for page 48 identified Numbers
11:4-6 from the New Living Testament as the source which says:
2

Then the foreign rabble who were traveling with the Israelites began to crave the good things of
Egypt. And the people of Israel also began to complain. Oh, for some meat! they exclaimed.
5
We remember the fish we used to eat for free in Egypt. And we had all the cucumbers, melons,
leeks, onions, and garlic we wanted. 6 But now our appetites are gone. All we ever see is this
manna!
Batterson omits:4 Then the foreign rabble from the account. Why would he do that? It seems to
me that it is a crucial element in Israels disobedience He fails to identify the initial complainers, the
instigators, who led Israel astray. They are the people who joined the Israelites when they left Egypt
as identified in Exodus 12:38: 38 A mixed multitude went up with them also, and flocks and herds
a great deal of livestock. (NKJV).
Paul warned about being entwined with unbelievers:
14

Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with
lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? 15 And what accord has Christ with
Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever? 2 Corinthians 6:14-15 (NKJV)
Batterson missed an opportunity to emphasize spiritual separation from the world in this lesson about
the quail. God said, in Romans 12:2:
And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you
may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. (NKJV)
He also left out Gods reaction to the complaints as well as the example of Gods mercy:
Now when the people complained, it displeased the LORD; for the LORD heard it, and His anger
was aroused. So the fire of the LORD burned among them, and consumed some in the outskirts of
the camp. 2 Then the people cried out to Moses, and when Moses prayed to the LORD, the fire was
quenched. Numbers 11:1-3 (NKJV).
Moses cried out to God about the demands made on him and his frustrated voice conveyed an image to
me of a person who had reached a point of exhaustion and frustration. He pleaded with God:
13

Where am I to get meat to give to all these people? For they weep all over me, saying, Give us
meat, that we may eat. 14 I am not able to bear all these people alone, because the burden is too
heavy for me. Numbers 11:13-14 (NKJV).
God told Moses to assign 70 elders to free him from trying to handle the problems of the people. And
then God told him how and why He would answer their whining complaints:
18

Then you shall say to the people, Consecrate yourselves for tomorrow, and you shall eat meat;
for you have wept in the hearing of the LORD, saying, Who will give us meat to eat? For it was
well with us in Egypt. Therefore the LORD will give you meat, and you shall eat. 19 You shall eat,
not one day, nor two days, nor five days, nor ten days, nor twenty days, 20 but for a whole month,
until it comes out of your nostrils and becomes loathsome to you, because you have despised the
LORD who is among you, and have wept before Him, saying, Why did we ever come up out of
Egypt? Numbers 11:18-20 (NKJV).
Batterson missed Gods point with the month-long supply of meat Batterson presented it as a
blessing whereas it was a curse from God because the people despised the LORD who is among you.
He twisted the meaning of the quail-event and stated:
Meat for a month seems like an impossible promise. And Moses has to decide whether or not he is
going to circle it. Logic is screaming no; faith is whispering yes. And Moses has to choose
between the two.9
3

So Moses went out and told the people what the LORD had said. (Numbers 11:24)
Moses risked his reputation and circled the promise. He pushed all of his credibility chips to the
middle of the table and told the Israelites that God was going to give them meat to eat. This had to
be one of the toughest decisions he ever made, one of the scariest sermons he ever preached, one of
the craziest visions he ever cast.10
Why, knowing what God said to Moses, would Batterson write as if Moses had a hard time reaching a
decision? God clearly told Moses what He was going to do and His reason for doing it. Batterson
painted Moses as conflicted and compared his situation to a poker game.

2. Vision casting
How and when did Moses cast visions? Batterson said it but didnt explain it! The sad point here is
that new believers as well as mature Christians could be misled if they failed to check out Battersons
statements.
Jim Wideman offers 7 steps in casting a vision. Basically, it involves methods to communicate a
dream to others to bring it to fruition. Strangely, his approach lacks any reference to the Holy Spirits
involvement with his vision casting.11
Ronnie Floyd offers 4 steps in communicating a vision. The Holy Spirit is not mentioned in his
article.12
Eric Swanson with Campus Crusade for Christ borrows from 2 business books and several Scripture
verses to instruct readers about what vision is, how to create and how to cast it to others as well as
catching a vision. Sadly, the Holy Spirit is absent from his article.13
Richard Reising, in his book, Church Marketing 101, deals with vision in greater detail. Several items
set his method apart from the others.14
1. The Holy Spirit is involved in the creation or realization of the vision;
2. Assessment is a critical part of the process.
Note that there is no assessment of circle praying in Battersons book. It either works or it doesnt
and he fails to tell how to evaluate his methods. Christs Church, however, grew without secular
business principles:
40

And with many other words he testified and exhorted them, saying, Be saved from this
perverse generation. 41 Then those who gladly received his word were baptized; and that day
about three thousand souls were added to them. Acts 2:40-41 (NKJV)
15

but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head
Christ 16 from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies,
according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the
body for the edifying of itself in love. Ephesians 4:15-16 (NKJV)
Battersons allusion to Moses casting visions, then, is misleading, unsubstantiated and untrue. Moses
followed Gods direction and God orchestrated events to suit His purposes. It may be that Batterson
was writing for theologians or business managers who were familiar with vision casting but the
concept is confusing and difficult for the layman to grasp.
This is another of many examples of Mark Battersons inability to clearly set forth a program for
personal spiritual growth.
4

3. Deception in Christs Church

Rev. Anthony Wade15 identifies a few of the deceptions that have been promoted by charlatans in
Christs Church:
Now the Holy Spirit tells us clearly that in the last times some will turn away from the true faith;
they will follow deceptive spirits and teachings that come from demons. These people are
hypocrites and liars, and their consciences are dead. -- 1Timothy 4: 1-2 (NLT)
The modern church has become enamored with the next big thing theology. Whatever tickles the
ears or sounds good enough, seems to be enough for church leaders to incorporate into their
congregations. We saw this years ago with the Purpose Driven heresy and it continues well into
today. We must realize that not all heresy appears equal. There are the low lying fruit, such as the
Toronto holy laughter debacle and the more recent Todd Bentley fiasco in Lakeland Florida. I say
low lying because those heresies should be so obvious that they be rejected out of hand but even
those instances drew tens of thousands of people every night. People chasing a spiritual experience
without understanding the true nature of spiritual warfare. You can chase a spiritual experience and
capture it pretty easily but that does not mean that it is from the Spirit of God.
Dear friends, do not believe everyone who claims to speak by the Spirit. You must test them to see if
the spirit they have comes from God. For there are many false prophets in the world. -- 1John 4: 1
(NLT)

D. Moses Circled the promise

Mark Batterson tells us that Moses circled the promise on pages 52, 55, 74 and 76. He describes focusing on
a promise by literally walking around something or someplace to acquire what he wanted. He talks about
drawing a circle and praying inside of it. Is that what Moses did or was the circle figurative?
Jesus provided guidance for our attitude of prayer and a location that is profitable (spiritually) for us:
5

And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues
and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their
reward. 6 But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your
Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. 7 And when
you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many
words. Matthew 6:5-7 (NKJV)
Sometimes we will, as a congregation, hold hands and pray. Doing so expresses our Christian fellowship and
is a demonstration of our unity in Christ and support for each other. I didnt find such a prayer method
mentioned in Scripture but we have the freedom in Christ to do it in a spontaneous manner as long as it
doesnt become a ritual.
A search in Scripture for circle in prayer, circling in prayer or prayer circles yielded no results.
A search in Scripture on prayer positions lists:
Sitting, kneeling, bowing, standing, with uplifted hands, walking, and prostrate.

The Institute of Basic Life Principles provides a useful page on prayer positions.16 This excerpt helps illustrate
Biblical examples. Note that there is no circle of prayer.
What is the significance of using different postures in prayer?
Communication with God does not require a certain physical position, but postures do give expression to the
attitudes of our hearts.
Lying Prostrate Before God
It is an acknowledgement of our total unworthiness.
When God made a covenant with Abraham,
Abraham recognized his unworthiness before God
and fell on his face before the Lord. Genesis
17:122
It is recognition of the need for Gods mercy. When
the leper came to Jesus for healing, he fell on his
face and begged for mercy. Luke 5:12
It is a right response to a serious crisis. Often when
the leaders of Israel faced impossible situations and
knew that only God could deliver them, they fell on
their faces before Him and sought His aid. Numbers
20:26 and Joshua 7:16
Kneeling Before God
It acknowledges the Lordship of Jesus Christ.
Kneeling before God provides a visual image of
submission to His authority. Philippians 2:911
It is a sign of earnest appeal. King Solomon knelt
when he asked God to bless the Temple and the
people of God. I Kings 8:54; Elijah knelt in earnest
prayer when he asked the Lord to send rain to end
Israels drought. I Kings 18:4146
It is a sign of personal humility. The psalmist
humbled himself before the Lord and encouraged
others to do the same. Psalm 95:6
Bowing Before the Lord It is a sign of reverence.
It is an expression of worship. When God answered
the prayer of Abrahams servant, the man. Genesis
24:52
Standing Before the Lord
It represents our position in Christs righteousness.
Romans 5:12
It symbolizes our preparation for battle. Ephesians
6:1318
It shows readiness to serve. One expression that
describes serving another person, especially a

sovereign, is to stand before that person. Daniel

1:5; also Romans 6:18
Sitting Before the Lord
It reminds us that all believers are seated with Christ
in heaven. Ephesians 1:1523 and 2:47
It represents Gods call to forgive offenders. Jesus
told His disciples. Ephesians 4:3132
Looking Up to Heaven
It demonstrates where our help comes from. Psalm
121:12
It displays confident faith. John 11:4142
It indicates intimate fellowship with God. John
17:12
Stretching Forth the Arm
It appeals to Gods sovereign power. Exodus 9:29;
Exodus 17:11
It reflects Gods redeeming work: salvation.
Deuteronomy 7:1819
It demonstrates worship and petitions Gods
blessing. I Kings 8:2223, 2829
Leaping for Joy
Rather than being discouraged and defeated by trials
and persecution, we are to rejoice, and be exceeding
glad (Matthew 5:12). This phrase in the Greek
indicates the outward action of leaping and skipping,
an expression of great inward joy. This position of
prayer reflects the beatitude of rejoicing in the midst
of persecution and expresses the following attitudes:
It displays absolute confidence in Gods
faithfulness. II Corinthians 4:1718
It confirms that eternal things are our highest
priority. Personal possessions, reputation, or health
may be lost as a result of persecution. However,
compared to the eternal rewards we gain through
such suffering, these losses are less significant.
Romans 8:18
6

E. Moses return to Egypt

Mark Batterson refers to Moses as a slave on whom there was a warrant out for his arrest.... 17 A slave would
have no access to Pharaoh and yet, Moses and Aaron went in and told Pharaoh... (Exodus 5:1 (NKJV)).
Moses was not a wanted man: 19 Now the LORD said to Moses in Midian, Go, return to Egypt; for all the men
who sought your life are dead. (Exodus 4: 19 (NKJV)). There was no warrant for his arrest.
This is another example of inadequate research. Moses had more encounters with Pharaoh during which
Moses approached the King and they spoke face to face.

F. Elijah and rain

God warned Israel of punishment if she turned from Him and worshipped idols. Withholding rain was one of
the severe judgments against an apostate nation.
14

But if you do not obey Me, and do not observe all these commandments,

15

and if you despise My statutes, or if your soul abhors My judgments, so that you do not perform all My
commandments, but break My covenant, Leviticus 26:14-15 (NKJV)
18

And after all this, if you do not obey Me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins.

19

I will break the pride of your power;

I will make your heavens like iron and your earth like bronze.
20

And your strength shall be spent in vain;

for your land shall not yield its produce, nor shall the trees of the land yield their fruit. Leviticus 26:18-20
(NKJV)
When Ahab became king of Israel, Scripture teaches, worship of Baal supplanted worship of God. Baal is
described below:
The chief role in Canaanite religion was assigned to Baal, the god of rain and fertility. He took the form of
a bull, the symbol of strength and fertility.18
However, the term "Baal" in the Bible was more frequently associated with a major deity in the Canaanite
pantheon, being the son of the chief god El and his consort Ashera (In some sources Baal is the son of
Dagon, with El being a more distant ancestor; and Ashera is not always portrayed as his mother.). He is
thought by many scholars to be a Canaanite version of the Babylonian god Marduk and identical with the
Assyrian deity Hadad. In Canaanite lore, he was the ruler of Heaven as well as a god of the sun, rain,
thunder, fertility, and agriculture.19
We read of how Ahabs apostasy angered God:
29

In the thirty-eighth year of Asa king of Judah, Ahab the son of Omri became king over Israel; and Ahab
the son of Omri reigned over Israel in Samaria twenty-two years. 30 Now Ahab the son of Omri did evil in
the sight of the LORD, more than all who were before him. 31 And it came to pass, as though it had been a
trivial thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, that he took as wife Jezebel the
7

daughter of Ethbaal, king of the Sidonians; and he went and served Baal and worshiped him. 32 Then he set
up an altar for Baal in the temple of Baal, which he had built in Samaria. 33 And Ahab made a wooden
image] Ahab did more to provoke the LORD God of Israel to anger than all the kings of Israel who were
before him. 1 Kings 16:29-33 (NKJV)
Elijah, Gods prophet, warned King Ahab of the drought to come in judgment for Israels sins:
And Elijah the Tishbite, of the inhabitants of Gilead, said to Ahab, As the LORD God of Israel lives, before
whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, except at my word. 1Kings 17:1 (NKJV)
God told Elijah that he was going to end the drought.
And it came to pass after many days that the word of the LORD came to Elijah, in the third year, saying,
Go, present yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain on the earth. 1 Kings 18:1 (NKJV)
Ahab was challenged to a public contest by Elijah to see if Baal (the god of rain) would end the drought. The
450 priests of Baal set up a sacrifice on an altar and called upon Baal to light the wood for the sacrifice with
fire. They cried from morning until evening without success.
30

Then Elijah said to all the people, Come near to me. So all the people came near to him. And he
repaired the altar of the LORD that was broken down. 31 And Elijah took twelve stones, according to the
number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of the LORD had come, saying, Israel shall be
your name. 32 Then with the stones he built an altar in the name of the LORD; and he made a trench
around the altar large enough to hold two seahs of seed. 33 And he put the wood in order, cut the bull in
pieces, and laid it on the wood, and said, Fill four waterpots with water, and pour it on the burnt
sacrifice and on the wood. 34 Then he said, Do it a second time, and they did it a second time; and he
said, Do it a third time, and they did it a third time. 35 So the water ran all around the altar; and he also
filled the trench with water.
36

And it came to pass, at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, that Elijah the prophet came near
and said, LORD God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that You are God in Israel
and I am Your servant, and that I have done all these things at Your word. 37 Hear me, O LORD, hear me,
that this people may know that You are the LORD God, and that You have turned their hearts back to You
again.
38

Then the fire of the LORD fell and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood and the stones and the
dust, and it licked up the water that was in the trench. 39 Now when all the people saw it, they fell on their
faces; and they said, The LORD, He is God! The LORD, He is God! 1 Kings 18:30-39 (KNJV)
After that powerful demonstration, Elijah went to the top of Mount Carmel and prayed seven times for rain and
it rained. Mark Batterson injected the idea of Elijah circling his prayers with the persistence of Honi.
Batterson paints quite an imaginative picture for us:
Like Honi, who said, I will not move from here," Elijah held his holy ground. He stood on the promise
God had given him. I think Elijah would have prayed ten thousand times if that is what it took, but
between the sixth and seventh prayer, there was a subtle shift in atmospheric pressure...What if Elijah had
quit praying after the sixth circle? The obvious answer is that he would have defaulted on the promise and
forfeited the miracle.20
There is no What if! Elijah was committed, without question to God. Batterson has constructed the
possibility of an anti God or false premise. There was no default for an obedient servant of God.
8

G. Daniel
1. The Painting
Mark Batterson says:
One of my favorite paintings in the National Gallery of Art is the larger-than-life portrait of Daniel in the
Lions Den by Flemish artist Sir Peter Paul Rubens. Daniel is ripped, to the point of steroid suspicion (and
who knows, maybe its an accurate depiction), but far greater than his external physique was his internal
fortitude.21
Daniel at the point of the account of the lions den is over 80 years old.22 Look at Peter Paul Rubens
painting23 (circa 1615). I see two questionable qualities that challenge Battersons observation:
First, the figure is one of a young man with a full head of reddish hair and in prime physical condition. His
torso shows the muscles of a weight-lifter. His legs are those of a powerful runner or swimmer. The depiction
is not one of a man in his eighties.
Second, his hands are tightly clasped and his eyes are wide open toward heaven suggesting a fearful person
praying for protection.24

Briton Rivires (1890) work shows a different man.

David Jeremiah describes it this way:
Daniel standing in the lions den, his back to the lions in quiet contemplation, hands behind his back. The
lions are arranged in a semi-circle around him, some standing still, some padding back and forth. The lions
look peaceful if not perplexed; a meal was there for the taking, yet they didnt move. The next day, when
Daniels accusers and their families were tossed into the lions den, the lions jumped up and savaged them
before their bodies hit the floor (Daniel 6:24). Clearly, Daniel was protected by God.25

Mark Batterson is entitled to his artistic preferences but his perception is odd: Daniel is ripped, to the point of
steroid suspicion (and who knows, maybe its an accurate depiction)... Maybe Daniel used steroids? Did I
read that right? How did Battersons readers react to that statement and how did his editors allow it to remain
in the book? Is it possible that Batterson was unaware of Daniels age? His statements require supporting
documentation.

10

2. The seventy-year captivity

Batterson said, on page 141:
Daniel prophesied that it would take seventy years for the desolation of Jerusalem to come to an end.
The beginning of Daniel 9 states something different
In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of the lineage of the Medes, who was made king over the
realm of the Chaldeans 2 in the first year of his reign I, Daniel, understood by the books the number of the
years specified by the word of the LORD through Jeremiah the prophet, that He would accomplish seventy
years in the desolations of Jerusalem. Daniel 9:1,2 (NKJV)
The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son
of Josiah, king of Judah (which was the first year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon), 2 which Jeremiah the
prophet spoke to all the people of Judah and to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying: 3 From the
thirteenth year of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, even to this day, this is the twenty-third year in
which the word of the LORD has come to me; and I have spoken to you, rising early and speaking, but you
have not listened. 4 And the LORD has sent to you all His servants the prophets, rising early and sending
them, but you have not listened nor inclined your ear to hear. 5 They said, Repent now everyone of his evil
way and his evil doings, and dwell in the land that the LORD has given to you and your fathers forever and
ever. 6 Do not go after other gods to serve them and worship them, and do not provoke Me to anger with the
works of your hands; and I will not harm you. 7 Yet you have not listened to Me, says the LORD, that you
might provoke Me to anger with the works of your hands to your own hurt.
8

Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts: Because you have not heard My words, 9 behold, I will send and
take all the families of the north, says the LORD, and Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, My servant,
and will bring them against this land, against its inhabitants, and against these nations all around, and will
utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, a hissing, and perpetual desolations. 10 Moreover I
will take from them the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice
of the bride, the sound of the millstones and the light of the lamp. 11 And this whole land shall be a
desolation and an astonishment, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years. Jeremiah
25:1-11 (NKJV)
Note that it was Jeremiah who prophesied that Judah would be taken into captivity for 70 years, not Daniel.
Daniel was able to discern from reading Gods word the reason for the exile. Battersons lesson would have
been better if he had cited the abominable sins of the people in verses 1 through 8 as the reason for the
captivity. John MacArthur describes the reason for the 70 year punishment:26
The exact number of the Sabbath years is 490 years, the period from Saul to the Babylonian capitivity. This
was retribution for their violation of the Sabbath law. Leviticus 26:34 says, Then the land shall enjoy its
sabbaths as long as it lies desolate and you are in your enemies land; then the land shall rest and enjoy its
sabbaths. (NKJV).

11

3. Batterson credits Daniels prayers and prophesies as the seeds of our

salvation in Daniel 6:10.27
He said, His prayers and prophecies were the seeds of our salvation.28 Thats wrong. Genesis
3:14,15 says:
14

So the LORD God said to the serpent:

Because you have done this,
You are cursed more than all cattle,
And more than every beast of the field;
On your belly you shall go,
And you shall eat dust
All the days of your life.
15
And I will put enmity
Between you and the woman,
And between your seed and her Seed;
He shall bruise your head,
And you shall bruise His heel.
John MacArthur said about Genesis 3:15: This first gospel is prophetic of the struggle and its
outcome between your seed (Satan and unbelievers...) and her seed (Christ, a descendant of Eve...)
which began in the garden.
In other words, Batterson is wrong. The seed wasnt Daniels, it was God who planted the seed in
the Garden of Eden.

4. Batterson missed an opportunity to connect Daniels praying toward

Jerusalem with Gods command.29
Batterson didnt explain or understand the reason that Daniel prayed toward Jerusalem.
Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went home. And in his upper room, with his
windows open toward Jerusalem, he knelt down on his knees three times that day, and prayed and
gave thanks before his God, as was his custom since early days. Daniel 6:10 (NKJV)
Solomon, at the completion of the construction of the Temple in Jerusalem, prayed at the dedication.
In that prayer in First Kings 8, he listed situations when people should pray toward the Temple and /or
Jerusalem:
1. Verse 35 When the heavens are shut up;
2. Verse 37 When there is famine in the land, pestilence or blight or mildew, locusts or
grasshoppers; when their enemy besieges them in the land of their cities; whatever plague or
whatever sickness there is;
3. Verse 42 When a foreigner comes to Israel for Gods names sake;
4. Verse 44 When the people go to battle;
5. Verse 46 When the people have been taken captive.

12

While Batterson didnt mention these reasons, it seems to me that his narrative would have been richer
and the reader would have greater understanding of Daniel praying toward Jerusalem.

5. Batterson failed to correctly explain the seventy years prophecy.30

Daniel didnt, as Batterson said, prophesy about 70 years. He told about understanding Jeremiahs
prophecy.
in the first year of his reign I, Daniel, understood by the books the number of the years specified by
the word of the LORD through Jeremiah the prophet, that He would accomplish seventy years in the
desolations of Jerusalem. Daniel 9:2 (NKJV)
Daniel 9 concerns 70 weeks. Merrill F. Unger31 provides an overview in describing verses 20-27:
Jeremiahs prophecy of the 70-year Babylonian captivity is made the basis of a newly revealed
panoramic prediction of the entire history of Daniels people, the Jews, from the rebuilding of
Jerusalems walls until the ultimate establishment of Messiahs earthly kingdom.
Briefly stated, the 70-week timeline identifies four divisions:
1. 7 weeks or 49 years the rebuilding of Jerusalem;
2. 62 weeks or 434 years the period including Christs birth and death.
3. Unger defines the following time as ...an unreckoned period...a time of Israels national
rejection and the start of the tribulation.
4. The final week of seven years constitutes the climax of Jewish history prior to the
establishment of the messianic kingdom... and ...is divided into two half periods.

H. Habakkuk
Batterson said that Habakkuk prayed in a circle but a check on Habakkuk 2:1 of 50 versions of the Bible
yielded no mention of a circle in which Habakkuk was supposed to pray.32
Suzanne Stone said of Habakkuk:
The Talmud elaborates that the practice of circle drawing derives from the prophtet, Habakkuk, about whom
the verse says: "I will stand at my watchpost (mishmarti) and station myself on the rampart (matzor)."
Strangely, she credits verse 2:1 from Habakkuk from the New Revised Standard Version.33
Batterson said:
Im sure Honi the circle maker prayed in a lot of different ways at a lot of different times. He had a wide
variety of prayer postures. But when he needed to pray through, he drew a circle and droopped to his knees.
His inspiration for the prayer circle was Habakkuk. He simply did what the prophet Habakkuk had done...
Batterson credited that preposterous assertion of Honi and Habakkuk 2:1in his endnote on page 225, that the
credit was quoted from the 1992 book, The Book of Legends: Safer Ha-Aggadah at page 202.34 He speaks with
such authority based on a book of stories that are unreliable and unbiblical. (See umber 4,What is the Book of
Legends? below.)

13

2. The Christians responsibility when Biblical error is

discovered.
One of the key doctrines in our Adult Sunday School study Guide and the Baptist Faith and Message 2000
says:
The Church Each congregation operates under the Lordship of Christ through democratic processes. In
such a congregation each member is responsible and accountable to Christ as Lord.35
Scripture sets examples for us and our accountability before Christ. Ezekiel was warned to expose the evil that
would result in death and he was responsible for warning those people.
16

At the end of seven days the word of the LORD came to me: 17 Son of man, I have made you a watchman
for the people of Israel; so hear the word I speak and give them warning from me. 18 When I say to a
wicked person, You will surely die, and you do not warn them or speak out to dissuade them from their
evil ways in order to save their life, that wicked person will die for their sin, and I will hold you
accountable for their blood. 19 But if you do warn the wicked person and they do not turn from their
wickedness or from their evil ways, they will die for their sin; but you will have saved yourself. Ezekiel
3:16-19 (NIV)
God set the Bereans as an example to compare what they heard with Scripture.
10

Then the brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea. When they arrived, they went
into the synagogue of the Jews. 11 These were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they
received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things
were so. Acts 17:10, 11 (NKJV)
Scripture commands us to confront deception when we encounter it:
17

Now I urge you, brethren, note those who cause divisions and offenses, contrary to the doctrine which
you learned, and avoid them. 18 For those who are such do not serve our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own
belly, and by smooth words and flattering speech deceive the hearts of the simple. 19 For your obedience
has become known to all. Therefore I am glad on your behalf; but I want you to be wise in what is good,
and simple concerning evil. Romans 16: 17-19 (KNJV)

3. What is The Circle Maker?

Zondervan proudly announced in April, 2014, progress in Battersons publishing enterprise:
Zondervan is pleased to announce its Circle Maker franchise, comprised of New York Times bestselling
author Mark Battersons The Circle Maker: Praying Circles Around Your Biggest Dreams and Greatest
Fears, companion Draw the Circle, and several supplemental journals, guides and DVDs, has sold one
million copies since the trade book was released in December 2011.36
Its obvious that Zondervan was pleased with Battersons success. His books (franchise) are profitable to the
company and to Mark Batterson. The question is, is it spiritually profitable for Christians?
All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for
instruction in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good
work. 2 Timothy 3:16, 17 (NKJV)
14

A close inspection of The Circle Maker raises questions about the books concepts. Some include:
1. Biblical errors in The Circle Maker that were addressed previously;
2. The source;
3. Elements of the legend Honi;
4. Magic and the occult;
5. Buddhism;
6. A Course in Miracles;
7. Mystic inspiration in The Circle Maker;
8. Suitability of The Circle Maker for Christians;
9. Mark Battersons inadequate scholarship.
Mark Battersons book, The Circle Maker, was inspired by ... the true legend of Honi the circle maker.37 He says
The Book of Legends, which he counts as one of his favorites, is:
A collection of stories from the Talmud and Midrash...reading feels like an archaeological dig. I had dug down
202 pages when I stumbled across a story that may as well have been buried treasure. It was the legend of
Honi the circle maker. And it forever changed the way I pray.38
Batterson is like the amateur archaeologist who, after digging into the top layer of a tell and discovering an ancient
cup, rushes off to publish a monograph without digging deeper. He seems to have discovered a nugget of fools gold
and, irrationally, allowed that moment to change the way he prayed.

4. What is The Book of Legends?

The Book of Legends, according to the publishers description,39 is non-legal portions from the Talmud and
Midrash. While it doesnt identify which Talmud (Palestinian or Babylonian) it says:
Loosely translated as legends, [it] includes the genres of biblical exegesis, stories about biblical
characters, the lives of the Talmudic era sages and their contemporary history, parables, proverbs, and
folklore. A captivating mlange of wisdom and piety, fantasy and satire...the expressive medium of the
Jewish creative genius.
The Book of Legends that Batterson read was a 1992 English translation of that which was written in Odessa in
1908-11.40

5. What are the Talmuds and Midrash?

The Palestinian Talmud written around 410 AD and the Babylonian Talmud written around 500 AD
contain topical writings of the Mishna, or the oral law, believed by the Jews to have been passed from Moses
to Jewish leaders and scholars. The Midrash contains commentary or debate on the elements of the topics.
[See my chart, Christian / Jewish Holy Books on the next page.]

15

Christian / Jewish Holy Books

God Gave Torah (The Law) or
("F ive Books of M os es")
to M oses on M t. Sinai

M oses

The Old
Tes tament
The Tanakh

Jew ish O ral Tradition Believed by the Jews to have been by G od

to M oses who passed in on to Jos hua

Oral Law given

to J oshua

M oses w rote G od's

Commands
( 5 books of M oses)

To The
Elders

Writings of
Prophets

To The
The Prop hets

To The
M en of the
Great
Ass embly

The Writ ings

The Gosp les

Talmuds Arranged by
top ics called
Tractates

New Tes tament

M ishnah
Written O ral
Law
100 AD

Gemara
Comment ary
on the M ishnah
Palestinian or
Jerusalem
Talmud 410
AD
Babylon
Talmud
500 AD

Wrtings of The
Ap ostles

The Bible

Jos ephus
His torical
Books
1st Century
AD

Zohar Jew ish

M y sticis m,
Gnostic
concepts
Kabbalah

M idrash Pos t Talmudic

Comment ary
on Jewish
Biblical texts

The Book of
Legends
1908-11

SOURCES: 1. www.truthnet.org/TheMessiah/3_Books_of_Judaism/16
Timeline_Books_Judaism.jpg
2. Nadler, Sam, Messianic Discipleship, Word of Messiah Ministries, 2012 by Sam Nadler, p.46-53. RJR 8/12/2016

The story of Honi appears in various locations of the Talmuds and Midrash. Suzanne Last Stone provides an
excellent overview of the various Honi stories in The Yale Journal of Law & the Humanities on page 4 and
footnote 28.41 She said:
In each case of circle drawing in rabbinic literature the drawing of the circle is a prelude to a prayer on the
part of an intercessor figure that God reverse a judgment or explain his apparent injustice... Jurisdiction
entails locating the parties, either actually or metaphorically, within the boundaries of authoritative legal
space, compelling both the defendant to answer a complaint and the judge to respond. And I shall argue,
drawing on internal rabbinic and extrarabbinic evidence, that the circle serves to locate God within the
boundaries of the legal space it maps out.42
In other words, the circle is a place that a man draws to hold God until he is finished with Him. Rabbinic
commentaries varied in whether Honis demands were proper:
1. Honi has skirted the line of proper etiquette toward God;
2. As in the Mishnah, the arrogant and demanding nature of Honi's prayer is disturbing.
3. In the Mishnah, Shimon ben Shetah's remarks serve to reconcile the law and the case. Honi's brazenness
is exempt from punishment because the divine sovereign acquiesced. Such behavior is reserved for an
exceptionally righteous individual like Honi, who is a familiar of God.
4. The talmudic elaborations of the story, however, are concerned with the propriety of Honi's entire
course of conduct, including Honi's oath and the circle, and not solely his prayer for the rain to abate.
Both Talmuds question Honi's oath-taking and conclude that it was improper.43
Sam Nadler, gives us greater detail about the oral law and Talmud, Midrash and Mishnah in his book,
Messianic Discipleship.44 Nadler contends that the tradition of Talmud does not have authority over Gods
Word. He says:
The authority granted the Oral Law is based on a theory about its origin. The Talmud itself claims that
along with the Law from God at Mount Sinai that was written down, Moses also received revelation from
God which was not originally written down, but was transmitted orally thus, the Oral Law...If the
Talmuds claim to originate as Oral Law is untrue that is, if the Oral Law was not given by God to Moses
then it is an unreliable tradition, and not to be given divine authority. 45
Notice 2 Timothy 3:16, All Scripture is inspired by God....whatever truth was authoritatively inspired
by God was written down. This fact directly contradicts the rabbinical idea and traditional premise for the
origin and authority of the Oral Law.46
Nadler points to Joshua 1:8 [version not identified]:
8

This Book of the Law shall not depart out of your mouth; you shall meditate on it day and night, so that
you may be careful to act in accordance with all that is written in it. For then you shall make your way
prosperous, and then you shall be successful.
He says, further:
There was no Oral Law from Moses on Mount Sinai transmitted to Joshua. It was all written.47...The
Hebrew Scriptures make it clear: there was not then, nor is there today, any Oral Law from Moses. The
Oral Law are traditions of men, and should not be compared in authority to the Written Word of God.48
17

See my chart above titled, Christian / Jewish Holy Books to see the scope of Judaisms belief in the Oral
Tradition.

A. Laws and myths found in the Talmud49

1. Rain
This is an example of the complexity of Jewish Oral Law as written and commented on by Rabbis over
centuries.

(1) The order of the fasts mentioned above [for distinguished individuals, is observed], for the
first [series of] rain [that did not fall. The first series of rain would usually fall on the third, the
seventh, and the seventeenth of Mar Heshvan. If rain still did not fall they would then institute
the further thirteen aforementioned fasts (see 1:5-7 above) for the entire community]. However,
if crops change [detrimentally] we blow [the shofar and all the other stringencies of the final
fasts are instituted] for them at once. So too, if rain was interrupted between the first and the
next rain for forty days, we blow [the shofar and institute all the stringencies] for them at once,
for this is a [sign of a vegetation] plague due to drought.
(2) If rain fell [very lightly which is beneficial and sufficient] for crops but not for trees, or [rain
fell strongly which is beneficial] for trees, but not for crops, [or sufficient] for both of these, but
not for water-holes, ditches, and caves [used for gathering drinking water], we sound [the shofar
and institute all the stringencies] for them at once.
(3) So too, if rain had not fallen on a particular city, as it is stated: And I caused it to rain on one
city and not to rain on another city, one area was rained upon [and the area which was not rained
upon, withered] (Amos 4:7), that city fasts and blows [the shofar] and [since the sudden influx
of customers to the rained-on city affected by the drought will cause food shortages in the
surrounding area,] those cities around it fast, but do not blow. Rabbi Akiva says: They blow [the
shofar] but do not fast.
(4) So too, a city in which there is a plague, or a collapse of [sturdy] buildings, that city fasts and
blows [the shofar] and all surrounding cities fast, but do not blow. Rabbi Akiva says:
They blow[the shofar] but do not fast. What is considered a plague? In a city that could supply
five hundred foot soldiers, if three men die on three consecutive days, it is considered a plague.
Less than this is not considered a plaque.
(5) For these we blow [the shofar] everywhere: Wind [that damages the kernels in grain], blasts
[of heat, which causes the grain to pale], mildew, locust, hasil locusts, wild beasts, and the sword
[i.e., foreign armies, even if en route to another destiny] in these situations, we blow [the shofar]
as these are all likely to spread.
(6) It once happened that Elders went down from Jerusalem to their own cities [in Israel] and
ordered a fast because wind-blasted grain was seen in Ashkelon [in an amount that was sufficient
18

to fill] the size of the mouth of an oven in [the Philistine city of] Ashkelon. They also decreed a
fast because of wolves that had devoured two children beyond the Jordan. Rabbi Yose says: Not
because they devoured, but rather, they were seen [entering the city].

NOTE: While fasting is mentioned above, prayer is not. The people depended on someone to blow the
shofar an act of an elders ritual rather than appealing to God. The common man seemed to have to
go through a mediatorwe have Jesus as our mediator and can go directly to God through Him.

2. Women and children

50

A woman who couples in a mill will have epileptic children.

One who couples on the ground will have children with long necks.
[A woman] who treads on the blood of an ass will have scabby children.
One who eats mustard will have intemperate children.
One who eats cress will have blear-eyed children.
One who eats fish brine will have children with blinking eyes.
One who eats clay will have ugly children.
One who drinks intoxicating liquor will have ungainly children.
One who eats meat and drinks wine will have children of a robust constitution.
One who eats eggs will have children with big eyes.
One who eats fish will have graceful children.
One who eats parsley will have beautiful children.
One who eats coriander will have stout children.
One who eats ethrog will have fragrant children.
3. Lillith: Adams first wife
Lilith (Hebrew: Ll) is a figure in Jewish mythology, developed earliest in the
Babylonian Talmud (3rd to 5th centuries CE). The character is generally thought to derive in
part from a historically far earlier class of female demons (liltu) in Mesopotamian religion,
found in cuneiform texts of Sumer, Akkad, Assyria, and Babylonia
In Jewish folklore, from the satirical book Alphabet of Ben Sira (ca 7001000 CE) onwards,
Lilith appears as Adam's first wife, who was created at the same time (Rosh Hashanah) and
from the same dirt as Adam compare Genesis 1:27. (This contrasts with Eve, who was created
from one of Adam's ribs: Genesis 2:22) The legend developed extensively during the Middle
Ages, in the tradition of Aggadic midrashim, the Zohar, and Jewish mysticism. For example, in
the 13th-century writings of Rabbi Isaac ben Jacob ha-Cohen, Lilith left Adam after she refused
to become subservient to him and then would not return to the Garden of Eden after she had
coupled with the archangel Samael. The resulting Lilith legend continues to serve as source
material in modern Western culture, literature, occultism, fantasy, and horror.51

19

According to the Alphabet of Ben Sira, Lilith was Adams first wife but the couple fought all
the time. They didnt see eye-to-eye on matters of sex because Adam always wanted to be on
top while Lilith also wanted a turn in the dominant sexual position. When they could not agree,
Lilith decided to leave Adam. She uttered Gods name and flew into the air, leaving Adam
alone in the Garden of Eden. God sent three angels after her and commanded them to bring her
back to her husband by force if she would not come willingly. But when the angels found her by
the Red Sea they were unable to convince her to return and could not force her to obey them.
Eventually, a strange deal is struck, wherein Lilith promised not to harm newborn children if
they are protected by an amulet with the names of the three angels written on it:
The three angels caught up with her in the [Red] SeaThey seized her and told her: If you
agree to come with us, come, and if not, we shall drown you in the sea. She answered:
Darlings, I know myself that God created me only to afflict babies with fatal disease when they
are eight days old; I shall have permission to harm them from their birth to the eighth day and
no longer; when it is a male baby; but when it is a female baby, I shall have permission for
twelve days. The angels would not leave her alone, until she swore by Gods name that
wherever she would see them or their names in an amulet, she would not possess the baby
[bearing it]. They then left her immediately. This is [the story of] Lilith who afflicts babies with
disease. (Alphabet of Ben Sira, from "Eve & Adam: Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Readings
on Genesis and Gender" pg. 204.)52
4. Talmudic ideas on death
Esther Schor, in a review of After One-Hundred-and-Twenty, by Hillel Halkin, reveals
Talmudic concepts and discussions about death and the afterlife.
the world of the dead is an ungodly world, a state of permanent quarantine, which,
according to the Talmudic sages, God never created and didnt intend, since it is never
mentioned in the creation story.
The fourth-century rabbinic sage Abayey believed that the bones of the dead would eventually
rumble through earthen tunnels until they reached the Holy Land. I try to picture it.
From this welter of earthly pain at the hands of imperial powers came the concept of a twostage afterlife. First, the soul was rewarded either by gaining access to Gan Eden (paradise,
literally the Garden of Eden) or by being sent, for a period of time, to Gehenna, a place of
punishment and repentance. Second, in time (though how much was hotly debated) soul and
body would be resurrected, an event usually associated with the coming of the Messiah.
the concept of a two-stage afterlife. First, the soul was rewarded either by gaining access to
Gan Eden (paradise, literally the Garden of Eden) or by being sent, for a period of time, to
Gehenna, a place of punishment and repentance. Second, in time (though how much was hotly
debated) soul and body would be resurrected, an event usually associated with the coming of the
Messiah.
the rabbis debated moral questions. Who is bound for Gan Eden and who for Gehenna?
Which sins warrant more severe penalties? Could gentiles be found in paradise? One rabbi says
yes, another no, and a third suggests that in paradise gentiles play the role of the Jews personal
assistantspresumably unpaid.
20

Yet another barrage of questions take aim at the idea of resurrection: At what age will we find
ourselves? Will we be cured of our infirmities? Will we live forever or die and start the cycle
again? Most important, will the resurrected life continue to be a battle between yetser hatov (the
impulse toward good) and yetser hara (the impulse toward evil)? And if not, will we need
Jewish law at all? Perhaps because resurrection is usually described as a communal event, the
Talmudic rabbis used the afterlife to exert pressure on individuals to be pious.
As for Gehenna, Mr. Halkin draws a sharp distinction between early Christian hell, a place of
unremitting fire and eternal damnation, and Gehenna, where the Talmudists and medieval
commentators agreed that infernal punishments can be atoned for and are strictly limited to 12
months.
As for Gehenna, Mr. Halkin draws a sharp distinction between early Christian hell, a place of
unremitting fire and eternal damnation, and Gehenna, where the Talmudists and medieval
commentators agreed that infernal punishments can be atoned for and are strictly limited to 12
months.53
Conclusion
The above examples are a few in the encyclopedic-size, shelf-long, collection of books called the
Talmud. Some are complex, others are silly, and still others are contradictory. The Talmud, as the basis
for The Book of Legends, contributes to the confusion found in Mark Battersons The Circle Maker.

Scripture shows us how God used confusion to thwart those who rebelled against Him:
In that day, says the Lord, I will strike every horse with confusion, and its rider with
madness; I will open My eyes on the house of Judah, and will strike every horse of the peoples
with blindness. Zechariah 12:4 (NKJV)
But God does not cause confusion in those who follow Him:
For God is not the author of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints. 1
Corinthians 14:33 (NKJV)
If the Holy Spirit guided Mark Batterson as he wrote his book, there would be no confusion or
contradiction. I believe that, based on the evidence of all that I have read and discovered in The Circle
Maker, that Batterson may have been led by a spirit, but it wasnt the Spirit of God.

6. What are some of the elements of the Honi legend?

This is a brief survey of the varying narratives about the mythical Honi:

A. Circle Prayer
1.

Honi prayed for rain and none appeared. He drew a circle and stepped into it and prayed and it
rained.54
2. Honi drew a circle and prayed for rain.55
3. Honis approach to God was Arrogant and demanding and disturbing, according to Suzanne
Stones Rabbinic Legal Magic: A New Look at Honis Circle As the Construction of Laws Space,
page 104.56
4. Batterson writes that after the gentle rain, Honi, asked God for rain that would fill cisterns. He said:
21

The sprinkle turned into such a torrential downpour that eyewitnesses said no raindrop was smaller
than an egg in size.* It rained so heavily and so steadily that the people fled to the Temple Mount to
escape the flash floods. Honi stayed and prayed inside his protracted circle.57
* NOTE: Talmud Mas. Taanith 23s records the volume of the water this way:
The rain then began to come down with great force, every drop being as big as the opening of a
barrel and the Sages estimated that no one drop was less than a log.58
Based on flood waters that weve seen, if the water, according to Talmudic legend, came down with such
force and in such quantity that the villagers had to flee to higher ground to escape the probable flash flood,
it would have washed away the village. The Honi stories conflict with the natural laws established by God
the ferocity of the rain and the volume of water would have certainly washed away the circle in the
sand59 (that sand is mentioned seven times in Battersons book) and, thereby, end any further
communication with God. If the communication continued without the circle, one has to recognize that the
circle was not needed and therefore exposes the entire myth as a sham.

B. Sleep
1. Honi slept 70 years in a cave.60
2. He fell asleep and a rocky hedge enclosed him and he slept for70 years.61

C. Death
1. Honi was stoned to death.62
2. He was depressed and prayed for death and died.63

D. Magic
numerous scholarshave equated Honis circle with magical practices, Suzanne Stone said in,
Rabbinic Legal Magic: A New Look at Honis Circle As the Construction of Laws Space, p.101 http://digitalcommons.law.yale.edu/yjlh/vol17/iss1/6/ (Footnote 14: Citing evidence from post-talmudic medieval writers, scholars such as Lajos Blau,
Samuel Daiches, Joshua Trachtenberg, William Green, and, initially, Judah Goldin viewed the
drawing of a circle accompanied by the adjuration "I shall not move from here" as evidence of
magical practices within rabbinic circles and cited by five rabbis and writers.
Stone continues, According to this view, the drawing of a magic circle is, either an act of
theurgy, intended to coerce God, akin to methods and magical symbols in other cultures used to
adduce rain, or a protective device, by means of which the magician establishes for himself a
private, forbidden precinct in which demonic spirits cannot trespass
As noted before, Stone says:
Page 103: In each case of circle drawing in rabbinic literature the drawing of the circle is a
prelude to a prayer on the part of an intercessor figure that God reverse a judgment or explain his
apparent injustice

22

E. Pagan influence on Jewish Oral Law

Mark Battersons house of circle prayer is built on a foundation of unscriptural writers from a culture
that compromised with pagan worship. In What Does Judaism Say About Astrology and
Horoscopes? by Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz,64 he says, in an introduction to a lengthy article:
Many people mistakenly believe that astrology is forbidden by Torah law and that the Torah
discounts it as meaningless. In fact, the Torah accepts that astrology is valid and accurate, and
some believe it is an essential aid in Jewish observance.
According to the Talmud (Shabbat 156a), the Jewish oral tradition, when God tells Abraham to go
out and look at the stars, Abraham saw that according to the astrological formations, he was fated
not to have children. God then told him that he would change Abrahams fate by moving Jupiter
from the east to the west, and make his offspring as numerous as the very stars in which you see
youll have no children.
The Talmud tells several more stories of how certain Jews were fated to die by as trological
influence, but merit and good deeds changed their fate. At one point, a Talmud teaching (Moed
Katan 28a) states unequivocally that children and sustenance depend not on merit but [rather on]
astrology.
Christian doctrine rejects astrology. God warns us that such practices are an abomination to Him. Is it
possible that Mark Batterson is ignorant of that truth? Is it possible that, while knowing about Gods
condemnation of astrology, Batterson failed to thoroughly investigate the Talmud? Is it possible that
he knew what the Talmud said but saw an opportunity for a new angle for book and other media sales?
Look at what the Bible warned about pagan practices and involvement by His people practices that
were approved in the Talmud:
19

And take heed, lest you lift your eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun, the moon, and the
stars, all the host of heaven, you feel driven to worship them and serve them, which the LORD your
God has given to all the peoples under the whole heaven as a heritage. Deuteronomy 4:19 (NKJV)
2

If there is found among you, within any of your gates which the LORD your God gives you, a man
or a woman who has been wicked in the sight of the LORD your God, in transgressing His covenant,
3
who has gone and served other gods and worshiped them, either the sun or moon or any of the
host of heaven, which I have not commanded, 4 and it is told you, and you hear of it, then you shall
inquire diligently. And if it is indeed true and certain that such an abomination has been committed
in Israel, 5 then you shall bring out to your gates that man or woman who has committed that
wicked thing, and shall stone to death that man or woman with stones. Deuteronomy 17:2-5
(NKJV)
39

But our ancestors refused to obey him. Instead, they rejected him and in their hearts turned
back to Egypt. 40 They told Aaron, Make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses
who led us out of Egyptwe dont know what has happened to him![i] 41 That was the time they
made an idol in the form of a calf. They brought sacrifices to it and reveled in what their own
hands had made. 42 But God turned away from them and gave them over to the worship of the sun,
moon and stars. Acts 17:39-42a (NKJV)

23

The following article from Biblical Archeology Review, a dedicated organization that unearths and reports
about daily life in Biblical Israel, reveals the compromises that Judaism made with its pagan neighbors.
This zodiac is one of many discovered in synagogue remain
remains.
AN INCREDIBLE FIND. In December 1928, a work crew from kibbutz Beth Alpha was digging a
drainage channel when mosaic pieces began to appear in their shovel loads.
The middle square, the
first to be uncovered,
was the most
spectacular. Figures of
four women were at the
four corners, with
inscriptions (in Hebrew)
identifying each as a
season of the year.
Inside the square was a
wheel ... with a smaller
circle ... in its center.
The wheel was divided
into 12 panels, each with a figure and a name identifying it as a
sign of the zodiac. And in the center, a man was pictured driving a
quadriga (four-horse
horse chariot) through the moon and stars. Rays of the sun were coming out of his
head; it was clear that he was Helios, god of the sun.
So this was definitely a synagogue, a Jewish house of worship, in a basilica building that dates to about
520 C.E. The building was destroyed in an earthquake soon after it was built, hence the near-perfect
preservation of its mosaic floor; their misfortune became our good fortune. And because Beth Alpha is
the best preserved of the seven synagogues we know, we use it here as the basis for our discussion.
We know that Jewish life moved to the Galilee
Galilee after the total destruction of Jewish Jerusalem that
followed the Bar-Kokhba
Kokhba Revolt of the 130s C.E. We are, therefore, not surprised to have foundand
found
to keep findingsynagogues
synagogues from the following centuries all over the Galilee and Golan. It isnt tthe
synagogues themselves that are the problem; it is the decorations in them.
A second problem is less easily resolved. The zodiac is pagan religion. It is what we see in the
horoscope in every weekend newspaper on earth, generally the stuff of amusement. We know this
system; it is based on the (extraordinary) assumption that the stars control the earth and that what
happens on earth is a result of influences from what happens in the sky. All we need in order to
understand the earth (that is, about our destiny)
destiny) is to understand the stars. If, according to this view,
one knows the exact date and time of ones birth, and can chart the exact position of the heavenly
bodies at that moment, then forevermore one knows what is fortunate, unfortunate, worth doing, worth
w
avoiding, wise, unwise, etc. Our universe, therefore, is fixed and determined. There are no values, no
good, no evil and no repentance. We live in a great mechanical machine of a cosmos.
The conflict of interest is obvious, and we are not surprised to learn that Jews detested that idea. For if
the cosmos is like that, why do we need God giving the Law to Moses on Mt. Sinai? The Christians
24

also had their own very strong reservations. If the cosmos is like that, who needed God to sacrifice His
son for the sins of the world? Who indeed? The early Church in fact absolutely prohibited the making
of zodiacs, and there is not one zodiac mosaic in a church that dates before the Middle Ages, and very
few even then. The zodiac/horoscope perception is the antithesis and enemy of monotheistic religion.
An ancient and honorable enemy, to be sure, far older than Judaism and Christianity, but still the
enemy.
SOURCE: Bible History Daily, Biblical Archeology Society, Jewish Worship, Pagan Symbols
Zodiac mosaics in ancient synagogues, by Walter Zanger, 08/24/2014
http://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/ancient-cultures/ancient-israel/jewish-worship-pagansymbols/

F. Judaism and magic

1. Magic and witchcraft
Suzanne Stone, in discussing magic in Judaism said:
The Hellenistic Jewish community borrowed this pagan model and deified Moses as a divine man who
ascended through heaven using his magical rod and other magical techniques, such as the drawing of a
magic circle, adjuration, and use of God's names. Traces of this image can be found in rabbinic
sources about Moses that emphasize his magical uses of the rod, the circle, and the divine name.
Rabbinic stories about Honi ha-Me'aggel and other early Palestinian wonder workers, such as Hanina
ben Dosa, are often seen as part of this complex. Both Honi and Moses drew magic circles and used
adjuration in performing miracles, such as producing rain or healing. With respect to the Honi story in
particular, some scholars have suggested that its inclusion in rabbinic legal sources underscores the
permeation of magical ideas, as well as the penetration of the typology of the Hellenistic divine man
who performs wonders and magic, even within normative early rabbinic culture.65
Dan Friedman lists a few contemporary Jewish beliefs in magic in, Jews Have Been Magic for Thousands
of Years, 66:
We all believe in magic. Despite 300 years of industrial and social revolution, as well as unparalleled
explanation of the natural world through the scientific method, we still throw salt over our shoulders,
put up hamsas in our homes, wear lucky shirts to job interviews and run through tested game-day
rituals, whether we are playing or watching. The new exhibition at the Bible Lands Museum Jerusalem,
Angels & Demons: Jewish Magic Through the Ages, (open for a year from May 5) shows us how
deep-rooted and complex those beliefs are.
The acceptance and practice of magic as described in the Talmud (from which the story of Honi is derived)
should alarm the reader to Mark Battersons tale and promotion of an unbiblical form of prayer. An
excerpt from an article from the Jewish Encyclopedia67 adds additional caution for the Christian to avoid
his The Circle Maker.
In Talmudic Literature More abundant information is found in post-Biblical literature, especially in
the Babylonian Talmud, where the great number of the passages alluding to magic furnishes
incontrovertible evidence of its wide diffusion. It was, however, only the practice of witchcraft which
was prohibited, for a knowledge of magic was indispensable to a member of the chief council or of the
judiciary, and might be acquired even from the heathen. The most profound scholars were adepts in the
black art, and the Law did not deny its power. The people, who cared little for the views of the learned,
were devoted to witchcraft, though not so much as the Babylonians, Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans
(Blau, l.c. pp. 17 et seq.).
25

2. Magic and artifacts

rtifacts
The use of magic that the Talmud condones should be of concern to Mark Batterson. The Book of
Legends, which Batterson uses as an authority, being based on the Talmud based on Judaisms oral
tradition has no place in Christian worship. Dr. Alan J. Avery
Avery-Peck
Peck describes the use of magic in the
Jewish and other cultures.68

Magic Bowls - Ancient artifacts reveal Jewish attitudes toward

incantations, demons, and the supernatural.
By Dr. Alan J. Avery-Peck
Peck
Reprinted with permission of The Continuum International Publishing Group from The Encyclopedia of
Judaism,, edited by Jacob Neusner, Alan Avery-Peck,
Avery Peck, and William Scott Green.
The Talmud portrays Jews in late antiquity as accepting and participating in the culture condones the of
magic and miracles of their age. The use of magical powers was seen as normal, and it was sanctioned so
long as the person involved stood within the rabbinic
rabbinic community and used magic for purposes accepted
within rabbinic religion. This implication of the literary sources is strengthened by archaeological
evidence that reveals the extent to which the Jews of the talmudic period, like the non
non-Jews of the
cultures
res in which they lived, accepted and indeed depended upon the efficacy of magical spells for
personal protection from demons and other ills.
This dependence is shown by a form of magical talisman found frequently in homes of the talmudic
period. The term magic bowl refers to a pottery bowl on which was written a magical formula used to
drive away evil spirits or to invoke a deitys help in preserving and protecting individuals or a family.
Who Used These Bowls?
During the talmudic period, in roughly 300-600
300
C.E.,
such bowls were in common use in Babylonia by
Christians, Mazdeans, Mandeans, and Jews. While
bowls in use in Jewish homes often were prepared by
Jews who were not involved with or representative of
the rabbinical academies,
s, certain rabbinical figures
also were deemed potent agents the citation of whose
names could drive away particular demons.
The names of these rabbis accordingly appear
frequently on magic bowls and are invoked in spells
written to protect an individual or property from demons. In this way, the Talmuds own image of the
rabbi as a wonder-working
working holy man entered into and was utilized within the popular culture of the day.
The formulas used on magic bowls and the deities invoked are common across religious
religiou traditions. The
bowls apparently were prepared by professionals, for instance, by Jews for both Jewish and non-Jewish
non
use. A particular practitioner would be hired to produce a bowl not because of his religious or cultural
origins but because of his repu
reputation for success.

G. The Circle and witchcraft

w
God warns His people to shun witchcraft:
9

When you come into the land which the LORD your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow
the abominations of those nations. 10 There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or
his daughter pass through the fire, or one who practices witchcraft, or a soothsayer, or one who
26

interprets omens, or a sorcerer, 11 or one who conjures spells, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who
calls up the dead. 12 For all who do these things are an abomination to the LORD, and because of these
abominations the LORD your God drives them out from before you. 13 You shall be blameless before the
LORD your God. 14 For these nations which you will dispossess listened to soothsayers and diviners; but
as for you, the LORD your God has not appointed such for you. Deuteronomy 18:9-14 (NKJV)
Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem. His
mothers name was Hephzibah. 2 And he did evil in the sight of the LORD, according to the
abominations of the nations whom the LORD had cast out before the children of Israel. 3 For he rebuilt
the high places which Hezekiah his father had destroyed; he raised up altars for Baal, and made a
wooden image, as Ahab king of Israel had done; and he worshiped all the host of heaven and served
them. 2 Kings 21:1-3 (NKJV)
10

And the LORD spoke by His servants the prophets, saying, 11 Because Manasseh king of Judah has
done these abominations (he has acted more wickedly than all the Amorites who were before him, and
has also made Judah sin with his idols), 12 therefore thus says the LORD God of Israel: Behold, I am
bringing such calamity upon Jerusalem and Judah, that whoever hears of it, both his ears will tingle. 2
Kings 21:10-12 (NKJV)
Steven Lawson compares Mark Battersons circle praying with that of pagan prayer circles. He says:69
Mark Batterson says in his promotional video, that we should - "Learn how to pray in a new way."
"Dream big". "You can't just read the bible. You need to start circling the promises." "Your job is not
to crunch numbers and make sure the will of God adds up. Your job is to draw circles in the sand. If
you draw the circle, God will multiply the miracles in your life."
The Gnostic always ties in what you do with your spiritual success. "If you do this...God will do
this...". That is one way to tell if you are being fed a Gnostic technique.
Secondly, run fast and far from anyone who says they have come up with "a new way" to do anything
regarding Christianity. God delivered His word once for all to the saints. (Jude 1:3). Moreover, Jesus
was very specific when He taught us how to pray. (Matthew 6:5-15.) In Matthew 6:9 Jesus said Pray,
then, in this way". It is not possible to get any clearer about how to pray. For Batterson to declare he is
teaching us a new way directly goes against what Jesus said in the canonized and complete revelation
we know as the bible.
Lawson describes and shows photographs of Wiccans, Hindus, Native Americans, Mystics circle prayers and
says of Battersons casting a circle for prayer:
This is not a "new" thing, despite Batterson's advertising it as such. As a matter of fact, ritual circle
making is as old as the hills, and has always been unbiblical. I ask you, is Batterson's making a chalk
circle above any different from the Wiccan making a prayer circle below? Both are making a space
they claim is sacred, as opposed to the space inches away outside the circle that is common. This
sacred space keeps evil away, they both claim. Both claim that it is a bubble that has power and will
draw down promises from on high to the benefit of the petitioner.
An excellent source comparing parallels between Battersons The Circle Maker and witchcraft is found in
The Beginning and the End website.70 The author says:
In witchcraft and Wicca, drawing a magick circle is a well known and ancient practice for casting
spells and accessing the demonic realm. It is an occult method of prayer. So not only is Batterson
27

teaching a practice thats not in the Bible, it is copying a technique used in the occult. Any new
new
spiritual teaching that does even mention Jesus or the Gospel will inevitably lead back to Satan.
Several occult web sites discuss the Magik Circle. The Tarot card description below describes the witches
sacred circle.

Creating Your Magik Circle

Your Spiritual Space
Most witches consider their spiritual space to be their magikal circle. A magik circle is a space where a Witch
will conduct rituals and ceremonies. It is the gateway between worlds, spiritual and physical realms come
together and allow you to communicate with spirit, conduct spiritual work,
rituals, ceremonies and castings.
As with everything in the spiritual essence of the world, even a circle has a
few guidelines that need to be followed. The circle is not to be broken
bro
by
someone stepping into this space unless a gateway has been prepared for
them to enter. Nor should a Witch step outside the circle during a ritual
unless a door way has been prepared.
A circle is used to draw a visionary boundary that protects a Wit
Witch from
outside forces while conducting spiritual work. Many witches use visions of
blue flames or divine white protection to create this boundary.
Others choose to create this circle in the physical sense as well. Either by
drawing a circle on the floor in a permanent means, or by using a nine
nine-foot
cord made from natural fibers that can be easily placed and removed as
needed. Sand, salt or herbs can also be used to draw the circle. The important
aspect of circles is that it is your space. And you must feel
fee comfortable and
secure while youre within itss boundaries.
When you have selected the area to place your circle, you should Clear and Cleanse the energies before you
draw the circle. Many Witches will place a broom at the doorway of the circle as a tool that designates the
entry point of the witch or someone else who will be called into this space for work. The broom is also a
symbol of a spiritual barrier to keep out unwanted energies from entering your sacred space.
To draw a doorway, a Witch should use
use a wand or athame to cut a "hole" in the energy field. Many Witches
will use incense to close the doorway, using the smoke to symbolize the divine energy field.
Once your work is complete, you must close the circle and ensure the energy has been prope
properly shut down.
Leaving an open gate is not only disrespectful to the forces that assisted you, but also dangerous for you and
your home. Closing the circle is as simple as 1-2-3.
1
1. Thank the guides, teachers, God/Goddess that you called or who came into the circle to offer assistance
during your work.
2. Imagine the energy around the circle lowering around you, toning down and fading so to speak.
3. Finally, clear the space with a blessing and ask the energies to close the gate. If the circle was a
temporary fixture, then remove it and store it appropriately.71
28

H. Can Buddhism be used in Christian instruction?

On page 95 of the Kindle book [see screen copy below], Batterson says, The thing that sustained John
and Hidi...Living an un-offended life is not some Zen-like experience... The paragraph on page 91 of
the paper book says, My friends have chosen to live life unofended... and omits Zen-like.

I didnt know what Battersons Zen-like experience means and I dont have friends who would know
or use such a phrase. Thankfully, a web site provided a definition. A. Keats answered the question:
WHAT DOES ZEN-LIKE MEAN?
An act that is "zen like" is an act done without separation.
For example, if you are washing the dishes while thinking about what you are going to do when you
finish washing the dishes, your actions are separated from your thoughts.
On the other hand, if you are one with washing the dishes, if your attention is wholly focused
on what you are doing, you act is "zen like" because it is performed without separation. Distinguish
physical pain from psychological suffering.
Since all suffering comes from separation, the ideal way to act in Zen is to do one act at a time with
complete concentration. That is a simple idea, but it's not easy to do.72

29

I can understand why Batterson changed the paragraph and deleted Zen-like
like in the paper book. My
problem with the section relating to Jim and Hedi is that it seems as if they were new, or baby Chr
Christians.
Batterson describes them:
John and Hedi are ...part of the prayer circle that prays for me while Im in a writing season. They
were also part of the prayer circle that prayed for the $2 million miracle. God has given them
amazing answers to their
the prayers for others...73
It seems, to me, that although they are very much involved in Battersons ministry, their New-Age
New
terminology is alien to the true Christian fellowships in which I am, or ever was, a part, and yet, Batterson
seems to feel comfortable
rtable with such terms. A conscientious pastor would, I believe, identify New Age and
anti- Biblical errors and expose them.

I. Why Would Batterson teach A Course in Miracles in His

Church?
I discovered a disturbing revelation while searching the Kindle copy of The Circle Maker. Whether it was
coincidental or lead by the Holy Spirit Ill leave for the reader to consider.
Mark Batterson told of teaching a Course in Miracles in his church. The screen copy below is from page
25 in the Kindle Reader74:

30

NOTE: Mark Batterson changed the paragraph in the paper-back copy of The Circle Maker, on page 27,
by omitting the reference to A Course in Miracles to I was teaching a series at our church on miracles,

Kenneth Fritjofson, Pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Port Jefferson Station, NY, in the 80s alerted our
congregation to the dangers of the subtle attractions of the cults. Walter Martin, a long-time friend of
Pastor Fritjofsons, and a welcome speaker at our church, warned about the dangers of the cults and occult
religions. The study of those dangers convinced me of the critical importance of knowing about authentic
Christian doctrine. As a result, Ive taught Bible classes called Other-god Studies exposing cultic
and occult movements and influences that were deceiving Christians.
Scripture warns us that:
Little children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now
many antichrists have come, by which we know that it is the last hour. 19 They went out from us, but
they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out
that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us. 1 John 2:18, 19 (NKJV)
Now I urge you, brethren, note those who cause divisions and offenses, contrary to the doctrine
which you learned, and avoid them. 18 For those who are such do not serve our Lord Jesus Christ,
but their own belly, and by smooth words and flattering speech deceive the hearts of the simple.
Romans 16:17,18 (NKJV)
I taught a session exposing the heresies of A Course in Miracles years ago and the reference in the
Kindle The Circle Maker raised the proverbial red flag. I was alarmed with a question that occurred to
me:
Can The Circle Maker become a gateway or path to the Talmud and Kabbalah and, eventually, the
occult?
Ive concluded that it can!
The first of the three internet articles that I downloaded relating to A Course in Miracles, is titled, A
Course in Miracles A Biblical Evaluation by Russ Wise. The first paragraph says:
Russ Wise has been an observer of the occult and cults (both Eastern and Western) for over 20 years.
Russ seeks to create an awareness of these non-biblical teachings in the Christian community,
thereby helping to prevent Christians from falling victim to these deceptions.75
He discussed some people in the development and popularization of the A Course in Miracles including
Helen Schucman, Marianne Williamson, Oprah Winfrey, Kenneth Wapnik and Gerald Jampolsky.
An internet search on those names will reveal the un-Godly and un-Christian focus of their teachings.
Mr. Weiss says that Marianne Williamson referred to Jesus in a typical New Age fashion [my phrase] by
saying:
Jesus is one of many enlightened beings. In her text she makes this statement, "Jesus and other
enlightened masters are our evolutionary elder brothers." She continues by saying that "the mutation,
31

the enlightened ones, (including Jesus) show the rest of us our evolutionary potential. They point the
way." So in reality Jesus is a way-shower.
It is significant that this Jesus is considered an enlightened master by Marianne Williamson. Benjamin
Crme author of, The Reappearance of the Christ and the Masters of Wisdom, described the Master
Jesus:
Q: Could you explain the relationship between the disciple Jesus and the Christ?
BC: The disciple Jesus, who is now the Master Jesus, was born in Palestine as a third degree initiate.
The five major Initiations which take one to Liberation have their symbolic enactment in the life of
Jesus. That is what the Gospel story is really about. It is a very ancient story and has been presented
to mankind again and again, in different forms, long before the time of Jesus.
He was, and still is, a disciple of the Christ and made the great sacrifice of giving up his body for the
use of the Christ. By the occult process of overshadowing, the Christ, Maitreya, took over and
worked through the body of Jesus from the Baptism onwards.76
It is alarming that the Master Jesus has been adopted by Eugene Patterson in his version of the Bible
titled, The Message. See Mark 16:19-20 in the New King James Version compared to The Message:

The Message
Then the Master Jesus, after briefing them,
was taken up to heaven, and he sat down
beside God in the place of honor. And the
disciples went everywhere preaching, the
Master working right with them, validating
the Message with indisputable evidence.

New King James Version

So then, after the Lord had spoken to them,
He was received up into heaven, and sat down
at the right hand of God. 20 And they went out
and preached everywhere, the Lord working
with them and confirming the word through the
accompanying signs. Amen
19

Pattersons use of the word master appears 350 times in the New Testament, the majority of times
replacing the title, Lord.77
A Course in Miracles is contrary to Christian doctrine according to Russ Wise:
Kenneth Wapnick, a Jewish agnostic who later became a Catholic monk, founded the Foundation for
A Course in Miracles. Wapnick states that The Course and biblical Christianity are not compatible.
He gives three reasons why he holds such a view. First, The Course teaches that God did not create
the world. Second, The Course teaches that we are all equally Christ. Jesus is not the only Son of
God. And third, The Course is clear in its teaching that Jesus did not suffer and die for man's sin.78
The genesis for A Course in Miracles is New Age or Satanic as can be seen in this description of its
origin from Rick Branch79:
In October 1965, Helen Schucman, an associate professor of medical psychology at Columbia
University in New York, began receiving channeled messages from a speaker who would later
identify himself as Jesus Christ. For the next ten years the voice is said to have dictated in an
inaudible voice the three volume, 1,188 page, 500,000 word book known as A Course In Miracles.
Another person who claimed special revelation into Gods relationship to His creation was Mary Baker
Eddy. Probe Ministries tells us this about Bakers revelation from God:
32

The followers of Mary Baker Eddy say she loved God and His word so vastly that she was given
revelation about the truths of scientific healing hidden beneath the surface of the Bible. She recorded
these truths in her Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures.80
Robert Perry, a believer in Course in Miracles,identifies nine categories that apply to it.81 A few are:
A channeled spiritual teaching People see it as a collection of spiritual teachings, purportedly from
a non-physical being, channeled through a living person. People are fascinated by the possibility
of wisdom from a higher plane.
A psychological system, both theoretical and therapeutic One of the most visible characteristics of
the Course is its psychological nature. It is filled with psychological terms such as: projection,
dissociation, delusional system, dreams, hallucination, denial, defenses, insanity, ego, fantasy, guilt,
and perception.
An inspired scripture, in the lineage of the Bible the Course clearly assigns itself a higher
authority than the Bible. It gives itself the authority to correct biblical passages, the authority to say
what certain verses "really" mean (a meaning often totally outside what the biblical writers intended),
and, most important of all, the authority to found a new spiritual path or way. In short, the Course
sees itself as a new Bible, which is in the lineage of the Bible but which has an authority surpassing
that of the Bible.
Mr. Perry, in part of his summary, defines the true source as:
the Course came from a mind much larger than our own, a mind that transcends all our separate
little categories, a mind that does not partition life into the little fenced-off parcels that we have.
Instead, this mind sees a grander vista, filled with connections, with streams that flow right through
all our property lines. In short, this mind seems to be exactly what the Course implies about the mind
of its author: a mind without limits.
What motivated Mark Batterson to lead members of his National Community Church in such an antiBiblical study? After reading his book, I suspect that he either lacks discernment or is comfortable with, or
fascinated by, spiritual teachings in conflict Christian doctrine. He clearly twists Scripture to fit his
circle fantasy.

J. Why was Batterson inspired by mystics?

A mystic is defined as:
mystic mistik/ noun: mystic; plural noun: mystics
a person who seeks by contemplation and self-surrender to obtain unity with or absorption into the Deity or the
absolute, or who believes in the spiritual apprehension of truths that are beyond the intellect.
mystic mistik noun: mystic; plural noun: mystics
adjective: mystic - another term for mystical.
synonyms: spiritual, religious, transcendental, paranormal, otherworldly, supernatural, occult, metaphysical
"a mystic experience" - cryptic, concealed, hidden, abstruse, arcane, esoteric, inscrutable, inexplicable,
unfathomable, mysterious, secret, enigmatic 82

Batterson identified three mystics in The Circle Maker.

33

1. A.W. Tozer Christian Mystic

Batterson identified A.W. Tozer83 as a mystic when he said:
The modern mystic, A.W. Tozer, believed that a low view of God is the cause of a hundred lesser
evils, but a high view of God is the solution to ten thousand temporal problems. If thats true, and I
believe it is, then your biggest problem isnt an impending divorce or failing business or doctors
diagnosis.
a. A post on the Baptist Board presents some insight for those of us who are not familiar with Tozer.
asterisktom said84:
The writings of A.W. Tozer seem to have two currents running through them. One current is the
frequent references to the Bible. But the other - and these are often mixed right in with the first - are
the enthusiastic endorsements of the mystical experiences and writings of those whose life and
doctrine are quite contrary to the Bible.
b. A.W. Tozer, in his book "Knowledge of the Holy, quotes three or four times from Julian of Norwich.
He wrote this of Julian:
Julian of Norwich, who lived six hundred years ago, saw clearly that the ground of all blessedness is
the goodness of God. Chapter six of her incredibly beautiful and perceptive little classic, Revelations
of Divine Love...
However this "classic" is more beautiful than "perceptive". It is nothing less than the message of a
deceived soul having duped been by an angel of light. This becomes apparent later in her writings.
c. The blog, Are You Aware? Deception is everywhere, lists a few mystical interests of Tozers85:
Aiden Wilson Tozer (1897 to 1963) was a Preacher with the Christian Missionary Alliance
denomination, an author, and a magazine editor.
In daily life Tozers sense of God enveloped him in reverence and adoration. His preoccupation
was to practice the presence of Godto borrow a phrase popularized by mystic Brother Lawrence
whom Tozer delighted to read
Tozers hunger for God led him to study the Christian mystics. Their knowledge of God and
absorbing love for Him profoundly attracted Tozer. They were spirits kindred to his own.
These people know God, he would say, and I want to know what they know about God and how
they came to know it. He so identified with their struggles and triumphs that people began referring
to him, also, as a mystic, a designation to which he never objected.
Tozers list of these friends of God grew with the years, and nothing delighted him more than to
uncover a long forgotten devotional writer. He eagerly introduced these newly discovered mystics to
his friends, bringing many of them into public awareness.
d. Dave Mosher provides some guidance about Tozer and mystics86:
I admire Tozer and view him as a wonderful man of God. but I see no need for Tozer (or any
other born again Christian) to quote Catholic (aka nonchristian) mystics period. There are many
biblically sound, born again Christians he could have quoted instead to make his points. (C.H.
Spurgeon and D.L. Moody are a few names that come to mind.)
34

Tozer does indeed seem to have been a wonderful, born again Christian. However, by quoting
Catholic mystics, Tozer (and others) set a dangerous precedent. Since Tozers passing, followers of
Richard Foster and company have claimed Tozer himself was a Christian mystic due to his quoting
of Catholic mystics. Whether Tozer truly was a Christian mystic to the degree of a Richard Foster
is highly doubtful. Nonetheless, by quoting Catholic mystics, Tozer did give the impression he was
sympathetic to Christian mysticism.
Addendum: A.W. Tozer was not alone in quoting Catholic mystics. Many writers in the Wesleyan
Holiness tradition have quoted Catholic mystics, for various reasons, dating clear back to John
Wesley himself. (All of these writers innocently set a dangerous precedent for Spiritual Formation
people today to quote Catholic mystics.)

2. Frank Laubach - Christian Mystic

Mark Batterson describes Frank C. Laubachs, Game of Minutes87 as a way to better communicate with
God. While the game, as Batterson describes it, seems a worthwhile and challenging experience for
theologians who may have the leisure to devote the time and attention, one wonders if it is a safe and
practical exercise for people who are beset with many tasks during the day.
Frank Magill and Ian McGreal88 commenting on Laubachs Christian Spirituality, said that his book is in
the lineage of Saint Augustines Confessions.
Two of the major themes that they identify are:
a. One learns to keep God constantly in mind by experimentation, by trying various experiential devices,
until the habit of constant God-thought is established.
b. Then God permeates the self and transforms its world and its relations to others into God's field of
constant action, in which all of the promises of Christ's gospel are realized in abundance of life.
Other comments include:
c. He was...a very subtle and realistic experimentalist, and regarded himself as fortunate to be living in a
"day when psychological experimentation has given a fresh approach to our spiritual problems."
d. In a manner familiar to the mystics of all ages, we find him saying to God: "And God, I scarce see how
one could live if his heart held more than mine has had from Thee this past two hours." He experienced
difficulties and failures in maintaining his consciousness of God, but in the week ending May 24 he
began to experience a further dimension in his conversations with God. In a moment of immersion in
natural beauty, "I let my tongue go loose and from it <519> there flowed poetry far more beautiful than
any I ever composed. It flowed without pausing and without ever a failing syllable for a half hour."
This brought him a deeper awareness of God in beauty and in love.
e. [After fourteen years of successful teaching, writing, and administration at Cagayn and Manila, he
realized in 1929 his long-standing ambition of settling among the fierce Moros, an Islamic tribe on
Mindanao.]
Two of the leading Moslem priests [of the Moro tribe] went about the area telling their people that
Laubach would help them to know God. He never pretended to be anything but a follower of Jesus, but
he studied the Bible and the Koran with the priests and the people and prayed in their services with
them. Observing this, one priest said, "He is Islam," He replied, "A friend of Islam." But the Islamic
35

emphasis upon constant submission seems to have been one factor prompting him to develop his way
of being in constant contact with God. He could not endure to see his practice as a Christian fall below
the profession of Islam. The inner transformation was substantial and with real outward effects. "God
does work a change. The moment I turn to him it is like turning on an electric current which I feel
through my whole being." There is a "real presence" that affects other people directly, and that also
makes intercessory prayer an exercise of substantial power in cooperation with God.

3. Walter Wink - Christian Mystic

Batterson cites Walter Wink on page 213 where he said,
Honi stood alone. Then he knelt down in the circle he had drawn. And thats all it takes to change
the course of His-story. In the words of theologian Walter Wink, History belongs to the
intercessors.
Batterson doesnt define His-story. He uses phrases that are unclear or obscure.
From the endnote to page 213 on page 226:
History belongs to the intercessors: This is one of my favorite all-time sayings, but I want to
share the larger context of the statement (from Walter Winks The Powers That Be: Theology for a
New Millennium [New York: Doubleday, 1999] 185-186
a. Intercessory prayer is spiritual defiance of what is in the way of what God has promised.
Intercession visualizes an alternative future to the one apparently fated by the momentum of current
forces. Prayer infuses the air of a time yet to be into the suffocating atmosphere of the present.
b. History belongs to the intercessors who believe the future into being. This is not simply a
religious statement. It is also true of Communists or capitalists or anarchists. The future belongs to
whoever can envision a new and desirable possibility, which faith then fixes upon as inevitable.
The five paragraphs contain more of these comments but lack Scriptural support. Visualization is a New-Age
method to focus the mind of changing a circumstance to achieve a desired goal.
A closer examination of Walter Wink yields some questionable information about the man:
Walter Wink in his own words:89
a. The new reality Jesus proclaimed was nonviolent.
b. The idea of nonviolent resistance was not new. The Hebrew midwives, the Greek tragedians, and
Jainism. Buddhism, Hinduism, Lao-Tzu, and Judaism were all to various degrees conversant with
nonviolence as a way of life and, in some cases, even as a tactic of social change.
c. Jesus' Third Way
Jesus' alternative to both fight and flight can be graphically presented by a chart:
Jesus' Third Way Seize the moral initiative
Find a creative alternative to violence
Assert your own humanity and dignity as a person
36

Meet force with ridicule or humor

Break the cycle of humiliation
Refuse to submit or to accept the inferior position
Expose the injustice of the system
Take control of the power dynamic
Shame the oppressor into repentance
Stand your ground
Make the Powers make decisions for which they are not prepared
Recognize your own power
Be willing to suffer rather than retaliate
Force the oppressor to see you in a new light
Deprive the oppressor of a situation where a show of force is effective
Be willing to undergo the penalty of breaking unjust laws
Die to fear of the old order and its rules
Seek the oppressor's transformation
Jesus' third way is coercive, insofar as it forces oppressors to make choices they would rather not make.
But it is non-lethal, the great advantage of which is that, if we have chosen a mistaken course, our
opponents are still alive to benefit from our apologies. The same exegesis that undermines the
Scriptural ground from traditional just war theory also erodes the foundation of non-resistant pacifism.
Jesus' teaching carries us beyond just war and pacifism, to a militant nonviolence that actualizes already
in the present the ethos of God's domination-free future.
d. In Easter: What Happened to Jesus? Walter Winks presents some surprising thoughts:90
Nevertheless, something objective did happen to God, to Jesus, and to the disciples. What
happened was every bit as real as any other event, only it was not historically observable. It was an
event in the history of the psyche. The ascension was the entry of Jesus into the archetypal realm.
Though skeptics might interpret what the disciples experienced as a mass hallucination, the
experience itself cannot be denied.
This is what may have happened: the very image of God was altered by the sheer force of Jesus
being. God would never be the same. Jesus had indelibly imprinted the divine; God had everlastingly
entered the human. In Jesus, God took on humanity, furthering the evolution revealed in Ezekiels
vision of Yahweh on the throne in the likeness, as it were, of a human form (Ezek. 1:26). Jesus, it
seemed to his followers, had infiltrated the Godhead.
The ascension marks, on the divine side, the entry of Jesus into the son-of-the-man archetype; from
then on Jesus followers would experience God through the filter of Jesus. Incarnation means that not
only is Jesus like God, but that God is now like Jesus. It is a prejudice of modern thought that events
happen only in the outer world. What Christians regard as the most significant event in human
history happened, according to the Gospels, in the psychic realm, and it altered external history
irrevocably. Ascension was an objective event, if you will, but it took place in the imaginal realm,
at the substratum of human existence, where the most fundamental changes in consciousness take
place.
Jesus the man, the sage, the itinerant teacher, the prophet, even the lowly Human Being, while unique
and profound, was not able to turn the world upside down. His attempt to do so was a decided failure.
Rather, it was his ascension, his metamorphosis into the archetype of humanness that did so for his
disciples. The Human Being constituted a remaking of the values that had undergirded the
domination system for some 3,000 years before Jesus. The critique of domination continued to build
on the Exodus and the prophets of Israel, to be sure. But Jesus ascension to the right hand of the
37

Power of God was a supernova in the archetypal sky. As the image of the truly Human One, Jesus
became an exemplar of the utmost possibilities for living.
Could the son-of-the-man material have been lore that grew up to induce visions of the Human
Being? Could it have been a way to activate altered states of consciousness based on meditation on
the ascended Human Being enthroned upon the heart? It was not enough simply to know about the
mystical path. One needed to take it.
The ascension was real. Something happened to God, to Jesus, and to the disciples. I am not
suggesting that the ascension is nonhistorical, but rather that the historical is the wrong category for
understanding ascension. The ascension is not a historical fact to be believed, but an imaginal
experience to be undergone. It is not at datum of public record, but divine transformative power
overcoming the powers of death. The religious task for us today is not to cling to dogma but to seek a
personal experience of the living God in whatever mode is meaningful.
Do Walter Winks ideas agree with Christian doctrine?
According to The New York Times obituary for Wink:91
Walter Wink, [was] an influential liberal theologian whose views on homosexuality, nonviolence and
the nature of Jesus challenged orthodox interpretations.
On the subject of gay rights, he acknowledged that in at least three instances the Bible categorically
condemned homosexuality. But he argued that Jesus, who never commented on homosexuality in the
Gospels, would have naturally supported a marginalized group.
Besides, he noted, modern people do not follow the Bible to the letter in all things, like its
endorsement of slavery. Moreover, he criticized specific interpretations of biblical language, saying,
for example, that the word sodomy as used in the Bible referred to anal rape, not consensual sex.
Many theologians bridled at his interpretations. Robert A. J. Gagnon, writing in Christian Century in
2002, said Dr. Wink ignored clear evidence of biblical antipathy to homosexuality. He said Dr.
Winks insistence that the Bible offers only sexual mores and no sex ethic was supported only by
sheer ideological fiat.
Dr. Wink compared Jesus to the community organizer Saul Alinsky in the clever ways Jesus advised
nonviolence to get the upper hand.
Ive taught about Saul Alinsky. He, as a college student, wrote a research paper on persuasion and
studied motivational techniques with Myer Lansky, Al Capons successor when he was in prison. The
methods he developed were based on mob intimidation. Hillary Clinton was a student of his and Barack
Obama taught and used his principles.
Heres what Saul Alinsky wrote in the dedication of his book:92
Lest we forget at least an over-the-shoulder acknowledgement to the very first radical: from all our
legends, mythology, and history (and who is to know where mythology leaves off and history begins
or which is which), the first radical known to man who rebelled against the establishment and did it
so effectively that he at least won his own kingdom Lucifer.
Alinsky said this about Jesus Christ:93

38

With this focus comes a polarization. As we have indicated before, all issues must be polarized if
action is to flow. The classic statement on polarization comes from Christ: He that is not with me is
against me (Luke 11:23).
He left out the rest of that verse: He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with
Me scatters.
Alinsky, in justification for his system of intimidation, cites Paul:94
The basic tactic in warfare against the Haves is a mass political jujitsu: the Have-Nots do not rigidly
oppose the Haves, but yield in such planned and skilled ways that the superior strength of the Haves
becomes their own undoing. For example, since the Haves publically pose as the custodians of
responsibility, morality, law, and justice (which are frequently strangers to each other), they can be
constantly pushed to live up to their own book of morality and regulations. No organization,
including organized religion, can live up to the letter of its own book. You can club them to death
with their book of rules and regulations. This is what that great revolutionary, Paul of Tarsus,
knew when he wrote to the Corinthians: Who also hath made us able ministers of the New
Testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit; for the letter killeth.
Alinsky, as with others who twist Scripture to suit their own purposes, missed the point. The closest his
quote comes from can be found in 2 Corinthians 3:6 and here it is in context:
4

Such confidence we have through Christ before God. 5 Not that we are competent in ourselves to
claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God. 6 He has made us competent as
ministers of a new covenantnot of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives
life. (NIV)
Note that our confidence comes from God not Alinskys mob mentor Meyer Lansky. Its preposterous
that Walter Wink would compare Jesus to Saul Alinsky.
It baffles me how a theologian could say anything positive about Saul Alinsky.
e. The Jesus is Savior web site wrote of Walter Winks views of homosexuality and the Bible.95
Unlike some homoapologists, Professor Wink does not attempt to use the Bible as an authority to
support homosexual relationships, rather he strives to negate the Bible as a moral authority
altogether. Though he makes some vain attempts to explain away a few of the clear Biblical
injunctions against homosexual relations, Wink's real objective is to disallow the moral authority of
the Bible itself by rendering it as morally incoherent!
f. Ted Grimsrud writes about Walter Wink and his peace theology.96
I suggest that the angels of nature are the patterning of physical things rocks, trees, plants, the
whole God-glorifying, dancing, visible universe; that the principalities and powers are the inner or
spiritual essence, or gestalt, of an institution or system; that the demons are the psychic or spiritual
power emanated by organizations or individuals or subaspects of individuals whose energies are bent
on overpowering others; that gods are the very real archetype or ideological structures that
determine or govern reality and its mirror, the human brain; that the mysterious elements of the
universe are the invariances (formerly called laws) which, though often idolized by humans,
conserve the self-consistency of each level of reality in its harmonious interrelationships with every
other level and the Whole; and that Satan is the actual power that congeals around collective
39

idolatry, injustice, or inhumanity, a power that increases or decreases according to the degree of
collective refusal to choose higher values (Naming, 104-5).

7. Is Mark Battersons scholarship shoddy?

2 Kings 22:1-7, 8, 10-11 (NKJV):
Josiah was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem. His mothers
name was Jedidah the daughter of Adaiah of Bozkath. 2 And he did what was right in the sight of the LORD,
and walked in all the ways of his father David; he did not turn aside to the right hand or to the left.
3

Now it came to pass, in the eighteenth year of King Josiah, that the king sent Shaphan the scribe, ... to the
house of the LORD, saying: 4 Go up to Hilkiah the high priest, that he may count the money which has been
brought into the house of the LORD, which the doorkeepers have gathered from the people. 5 And let them
deliver it into the hand of those doing the work, who are the overseers in the house of the LORD; let them give
it to those who are in the house of the LORD doing the work, to repair the damages of the house 6 to
carpenters and builders and masonsand to buy timber and hewn stone to repair the house. ...
8

Then Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan the scribe, I have found the Book of the Law in the house of the
LORD. And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan, and he read it. ...10 Then Shaphan the scribe showed the king,
saying, Hilkiah the priest has given me a book. And Shaphan read it before the king.
11

Now it happened, when the king heard the words of the Book of the Law, that he tore his clothes.

Jamieson Fausset Brown Commentary:

2 Kings 22:8-15 . HILKIAH FINDS THE BOOK OF THE LAW.
8-11. Hilkiah said . . . I have found the book of the law in the house of the Lord, &c.--that is, the law of
Moses, the Pentateuch. It was the temple copy which, had been laid ( Deuteronomy 31:25 Deuteronomy
31:26 ) beside the ark in the most holy place. During the ungodly reigns of Manasseh and Amon--or
perhaps under Ahaz, when the temple itself had been profaned by idols, and the ark also ( 2 Chronicles
35:3 ) removed from its site; it was somehow lost, and was now found again during the repair of the temple
[KEIL]. Delivered by Hilkiah the discoverer to Shaphan the scribe ( 2 Kings 22:8 ), it was by the latter
shown and read to the king.97
Matthew Henrys Comments:
... in repairing the temple, the book of the law was happily found and brought to the king, v. 8, v. 10. Some
think this book was the autograph, or original manuscript, of the five books of Moses, under his own hand;
others think it was only an ancient and authentic copy. Most likely it was that which, by the command of
Moses, was laid up in the most holy place, Deu. 31:24 , etc. 1. It seems, this book of the law was lost or
missing. Perhaps it was carelessly mislaid and neglected, thrown ... into a corner (as some throw their
Bibles), by those that knew not the value of it, and forgotten there; or it was maliciously concealed by
some of the idolatrous kings, or their agents, who were restrained by the providence of God or their own
consciences from burning and destroying it, but buried it, in hopes it would never see the light again; or, as
some think, it was carefully laid up by some of its friends, lest it should fall into the hands of its enemies.98
At King Josiahs command, workers began to clean and restore the Temple after years of neglect. Ive cleaned
a few old houses and discovered remarkable things that had been buried under the rubble. Years of neglect
must have left layers of dusty remnants under the debris at the Temple.

40

Imagine the excitement when the workers cleared the wreckage and found the precious scroll. Modern-day
archeologists probably experience the same joy that the haphazard discovery by the workers brought to Hilkiah
and, ultimately, Josiah.
If we compare this to scholarship we can conclude that it is crucial to dig below the surface to discover truth.
Hard, dedicated and serious inquiry reveals the gems that can only be found by excavating the source. And its
apparent that Batterson didnt dig deeply enough.
Mark Batterson described his frustration with writing:
Getting a book published is fun. Writing is anything but. Its a long and boring process that is painfully
painstaking when youre a perfectionist. Do I love writing? Yes. But what I really love is having written.
And I wish it got easier, but it doesnt. Writing this book was just as boring and long as the last one
I had a bout with writers block the other day Ive come to expect it as part of the process of writing.
There are days that you need to pray through and write through, even when you dont feel any creative
flow. But I had a bad case, and it was made worse by my looming deadline99
Without a deadline, I would never accomplish anything because Im both a perfectionist and a
procrastinator.100
I suspect that sound, proficient research and proper interpretation of the evidence was hampered by deadlines
and competing personal and professional interests. His compulsion to create his narrative involving Honi and
applying imaginative illustrations of Biblical persons to support the plot resulted in an inaccurate book. In his
surface search for applications to support his thesis, he neglected to do the work necessary to authenticate his
story. Its a shame that many readers and reviewers accepted Battersons fabrications without checking the
references and its surprising that the publishers editors missed so many of his mistakes.
When asked (in respect to writing mysteries) about the hardest part, author James Patterson said, ... One is an
idea that is fresh, because there are so many mysteries and thrillers, not just in book form but in television and
movies, so its relatively hard to come up with a new idea and new character or set of characters.101
Batterson found a new character in Honi in the treasure chest buried under thousands of years of Judaical
dust in the 1992 English translation of The Book of Legends: Safer Ha-Aggadah.102 His imagination created a
storyline that is part of an emerging publishing enterprise that fits into the New Age panoply of self-help
books. By this time, he may well have achieved his Influence Goal publishing target of twenty-five-plus
nonfiction books. 103 I submit that The Circle Maker fits into the fiction, rather than non-fiction, category.

8. What is the R.W. Schambach conundrum?

Mark Batterson wrote:104
In 1960, an evangelist named R.W. Shambach [should be spelled, Schambach] preached a revival in
Washington, DC for church planters Fred and Charlotte Hall. Shambach laid hands on the Academy
Theatre and prayed that God would give it to them.
Shambach also prayed what I believe was a prophetic prayer over that theater. As he laid hands on that
building, he bound it for Gods glory: May this place always be used for Gods glory.
When R.W. Shambach laid hands on that theater in 1960, he prayed a circle around it.
41

Its a shame that Batterson didnt do some research on Schambach. While doing typesetting in my home office
in the 80s I listened to preachers on the radio. Schambachs yelling sermons were delivered with a resonating
and rapid voice that captured my attention. He, as most of the other preachers on that station, ended his time
with an energetic and emotional appeal to his listeners for money to continue the preaching of the Gospel over
radio and television and in crusades in the U.S. and overseas. We tithed in our own church and supported
missionaries and I felt no compulsion to contribute to Schambach I could imagine how others might have felt
compelled to give.
Jacob Prasch and/or Jackie Alnor105 wrote an on-line article titled, TBN and the Root of All Evil. It
excoriated those preachers who badgered their listeners and viewers to send them money. The article said,
quoting Laurie Gregg, CNN radio network broadcast, circa 2000):
Another one of TBN's favorite money preachers is R. W. Schambach, a loud shouting preacher who
learned the trade from 1950s circuit riding faith healer, A. A. Allen. Schambach intersperses old stories
of miraculous signs and wonders from the old days into his current messages.
During a recent Praise-a-Thon, Paul Crouch was frustrated to see so many phone lines open. "Brother
Schambach, come here!" Crouch hollered. "They're not calling! Will you command them to call right
now in Jesus' name? Come on, General Schambach!" :"(Praise-a-Thon -- 4/5/2001)":
Schambach didn't disappoint. The number of phones available were at 100 when Crouch called him up.
By the end of his hard-sell plea the available lines lingered around 1 to 3. Schambach appealed to
people's greed to give in order to get and they started calling. He ordered the people to pledge $2,000 of
what they don't have and to pay the tithe of it up front of $200.00. And if they would pay it within 90
days, God would guarantee the rest of the money would come in.
But Schambach put out a warning. "When you get that whole seed," he instructed, "don't you eat your
seed. Don't you go down and buy that brand new pair of shoes. Don't buy that new dress. That's seed.
You don't eat seed. You put that seed in the ground and then it's gonna spring forth a hundred-fold."
Unfortunately for the deceived givers, this was the seventh Praise-a-Thon in a row that Schambach gave
the people the revelatory orders to give $2,000 in order to get out of debt. At the end of the Praise-aThon, he would have a debt-burning ritual. An altar of burning coals was set up outside the TBN studio
and Paul Crouch and R. W. Schambach would feed the fire with pledge slips containing the amount of
debt the viewers were reporting they wanted rid of. They also included the amount of money there were
pledging to TBN to ensure their blessing.
But, people were starting to complain that it didn't work for them. No problem, Schambach had a Bible
verse to encourage them to give it one more try. He told them the seventh time was the charm as it was
for Elijah in 1 Kings 18, who sent his servant out to look for evidence of approaching rain after a long
famine.
"You know what?" Paul Crouch said to Schambach. "I had never really thought about that -- Elijah and
his servant. What if Elijah had quit after that first time? He went and looked and there was no cloud. He
went and looked again, again. I had forgotten that. It was the seventh time. What if he had quit the sixth
time? There would have been no miracle. They'd have been no rain. There'd have been no story in the
Bible, but he hung in there till God heard. I wonder why the Lord waits like that?"
Its possible that Batterson had heard Schambach in 2001. Mark was about 22 years old at the time. Did
Batterson adopt Paul Crouchs thought above when he said:
I cant help but ask the counterfactual question: What if Elijah had quit praying after the sixth circle?
The obvious answer is that he would have defaulted the promise and forfeited a miracle.106
42

I dont know what Battersons offerings in his church are like. The point is that he talks as if Schambach did a
miraculous act by laying hands on the theater. Its possible that God might work through manipulators such as
Schambach, but Jesus said:
Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheeps clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.
16
You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles?
17
Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bear bad
fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown
into the fire. 20 Therefore by their fruits you will know them. Matthew 7:15-20 (NKJV)
It seems that Batterson was more interested in a claim of a spectacular event to fit his story and missed an
opportunity to expose offenses against man and God. The author of TBN and the Root of All Evil (well
worth reading) said:
I'll never forget a word of wisdom I learned from the late Walter Martin, author of The Kingdom of the
Cults. He said. "You'll know a wolf in sheep's clothing by its diet. A wolf eats sheep."107

9. Is Batterson guilty of heresy by association?

Previous examples of associations listed by Batterson included:

A Course in Miracles Marianne Williamson

Modern Christian Mystics
A.W. Tozer
Frank Laubach
Walter Wink
R.W. Schambach

Is Batterson guilty by association? The Bible can answer that question best. The following is taken from Joel
Taylors Guilt by Association What the Bible Teaches.108 Verses are from the New King James Version of
the Bible. God said:
10

Reject a divisive man after the first and second admonition, 11 knowing that such a person is warped
and sinning, being self-condemned. Titus 3:10-11
Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the
sons of disobedience. 7 Therefore do not be partakers with them. 11 And have no fellowship with the
unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. Ephesians 5:6-7,11
Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with
lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? 15 And what accord has Christ with Belial?
Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever? 16 And what agreement has the temple of God with idols?
For you are the temple of the living God. 2 Corinthians 6:14-17
The good folks at Knowing Jesus have produced a thorough Biblical resource. One is 60 Bible Verses
about Bad Company.109 Included on the site is a key verse for every Christian:
Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false
prophets have gone out into the world. 1 John 4:1
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Ken Silva pastor-teacher at the Appraising Ministries web site110 comments on 1 John 4:1:
Our text undoubtedly tells us do not believe every spirit, which is why as a Christian I must then test the
spirits; whether I want to do this or not. Which brings us to the other thing we had best be doing as
this spiritual darkness grows, and that is to really learn how to handle the Sword of the Spiritwhich is
the Word of God.
The verse is straight forward; do not simply believe everyone who claims to speak from God; be wary, on your
guard. Test them by Scripturecheck out their teachings because there are many false prophets; those who
will proclaim what God has supposedly saidboth past and futureloose in the world.
The reader has a responsibility to check the writers sources. The writer or preacher has a greater
responsibility to quote from believers to support Biblical precepts.

10. Is Battersons circling in prayer acceptable for a Christian?

After reading and examining Mark Battersons The Circle Maker, I have reached the conclusion that it is a divisive
and heretical premise based upon a myth taken from uninspired (not God-breathed) Jewish writings. Scripture warns
us to be aware that some will try to draw us away from God through mans philosophies. Scripture also commands
us to warn others about errors when we discover them. We are warned to pray for Gods wisdom when reading
about new revelations from God for us through anointed messengers.
Sam Nadler sums up the lack of Scriptural authority for traditions such as those promulgated by Batterson as found
in The Book of Legends. He warns:
...if even a New Covenant believer in Yeshua approaches you and wants to give you a personal revelation
from God, give it no credence...It may seem encouraging, but it is not authoritative. The written Scriptures,
both Old and New Covenants, are Gods only authoritative truth for your life.111

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Batterson, Mark, The Circle Maker, (Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan,) 2011 by Mark Batterson, p. 94, 95.
http://www.jesus-is-savior.com/Believer's%20Corner/promises.htm
Manser, Martin, https://www.biblegateway.com/resources/dictionary-of-bible-themes/5467-promises-divine
Hyndman, Rob J, http://bibleq.net/answer/650/
Newspring Church, https://newspring.cc/articles/how-to-understand-promises-in-the-bible
Batterson, op. cit., p. 16.
ibid. p. 47.
ibid. p. 47.
Batterson, op. cit., p.50.
Batterson, op. cit., p. 52.
Wideman, Jim, Vision Casting: What It Is and How to Do It, http://www.churchleaders.com/children/childrens-ministry-how-tos/169270vision-casting-what-it-is-and-how-to-do-it.html
Floyd, Ronnie, The 4 Cs of Effective Vision Casting, http://pastors.com/the-4-cs-of-effective-vision-casting/
Swanson, Eric, Catching and Casting Vision, https://www.cru.org/train-and-grow/leadership-training/starting-a-ministry/launching/catchingand-casting-vision.html

Reising, Richard L., Church Marketing 101, Baker Books, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 2006, p. 184.
Wade, Anthony, Rev. Devotional the Circle Maker Heresy Be Not Deceived, 828 Ministries ,
http://www.828ministries.com/articles/The-Circle-Maker-Heresy--by-Anthony-Wade-130104-108.html , 1/4/2013.
http://iblp.org/questions/what-significance-using-different-postures-prayer
Batterson, op. cit., p. 107.
Christian Reader, http://christianreader.typepad.com/christian_reader/2010/02/who-was-baal.html

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New World Encyclopedia, http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Baal

Batterson, op. cit., p. 89.
21
Batterson, op. cit., p. 140.
22
Macarthur, John, Macarthur Study Bible, New King James Bible, Word Publishing, Nashville, 1997, commentary on Daniel 6:3,
p. 1236.
23
https://www.nga.gov/collection/gallery/gg45/gg45-50298.html
24
Paintings Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_in_the_lions%27_den
25
Excerpt from Dr. David Jeremiahs Agents of Babylon Study Guide, Turning Point, 2015, p.76.
26
MacArthur, John, The MacArthur Study Bible, New King James Version, Thomas Nelson, Nashville, Word Publishing, 1997,
Jeremiah 25:11, p. 1097.
27
Batterson, op. cit., p. 141.
28
Batterson, op. cit., p. 141.
29
ibid.
30
ibid.
31
Unger, Merrill F., The New Ungers Bible Handbook, Moody Press, Chicago, 1978, p. 299.
32
Bible Gate Way, https://www.biblegateway.com/verse/en/Habakkuk%202:1
33
Stone, Suzanne Last (2005) "Rabbinic Legal Magic: A New Look at Honi's Circle As the Construction of Law's Space," Yale
Journal of Law & the Humanities: Vol. 17: Iss. 1, Article 6. Available at: http://digitalcommons.law.yale.edu/yjlh/vol17/iss1/6, p.
107, footnote 44.
34
Batterson, op. cit., endnote for page 159, p. 225.
35
Geiger, Eric, General Editor, Explore the Bible Personal Study Guide 1 Samuel, LifeWay Christian Resources, Nashville,
Tennessee, 2016, LifeWay Christian Resources, p.79. TAKEN FROM, Southern Baptist Convention, The Baptist Faith and
Message (2000), Article VI. The Church.
36
Battersons Circle Maker Franchise Reaches One Million Mark, Harper Collins Christian Publishing, April 9, 2014,
http://www.harpercollinschristian.com/battersons-circle-maker-franchise-reaches-one-million-mark/
37
Batterson, Mark, The Circle Maker, (Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan,) 2011 by Mark Batterson, back cover of book.
38
Batterson, p. 19.
39
https://www.amazon.com/Book-Legends-Sefer-Ha-Aggadah-Midrash/dp/0805241132
40
https://www.amazon.com/Book-Legends-Sefer-Ha-Aggadah-Midrash/dp/0805241132
41
Stone, op. cit, p. 4 and footnote 28.
42
ibid. p.103.
43
ibid., p.103-106.
44
Nadler, Sam, Messianic Discipleship, Word of Messiah Ministries, U.S., 2012 by Sam Nadler.
45
ibid, p. 47.
46
Ibid, p. 48.
47
ibid, p. 50.
48
ibid, p. 51.
49
Excerpted from "The Mishnah: A New Integrated Translation and Commentary" Distributed by Israel Book Shop (732) 901-3009
eMishnah.com, Copyright 2008 eMishnah.com All Rights Reserved., http://www.emishnah.com/moed2/Ta'anit/3.pdf, chapter
3, P208.
50
Babylonian Talmud: Tractate Kethuboth Folio 60a and 61a,SOURCE: http://www.come-andhear.com/kethuboth/kethuboth_60.html, and; http://www.come-and-hear.com/kethuboth/kethuboth_61.html, NOTE: See internet
documents for footnotes.
51
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lilith
52
http://judaism.about.com/od/jewishculture/a/Where-Does-The-Legend-Of-Lilith-Come-From.htm
53
Schor, Esther, The World to Come, The Wall Street Journal, July 16 17, 2016, p. C7, http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-worldto-come-1468610176
54
(Taanit 2:10-12, 66d) - http://rabbishimon.com/tzadikim/showz.php?p=choni.htm
55
(Taanit 23a) http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/11711-onias-honi-ha-me-aggel
56
http://digitalcommons.law.yale.edu/yjlh/vol17/iss1/6/
57
Batterson, op. cit., p.12.
58
http://www.halakhah.com/pdf/moed/Taanith.pdf
59
Batterson, op. cit., pgs. 13, 15, 34, 170, 196,214 and 215.
60
(Taanit 3.9.66d) - http://orion.mscc.huji.ac.il/symposiums/13th/papers/Horst.pdf
61
(Taanit 23a) - http://orion.mscc.huji.ac.il/symposiums/13th/papers/Horst.pdf
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(Josephus, Antiquities 14:22) - http://rabbishimon.com/tzadikim/showz.php?p=choni.htm;

(Babylonian Taant 23a; Jerusalem Taant 3:10, 66d) - http://rabbishimon.com/tzadikim/showz.php?p=choni.htm
64
http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/53680/what-does-judaism-say-about-astrology-and-horoscopes-you-may-be-surprised-jewishworld/
65
Stone, op. cit., p. 102.
66
Friedman, Dan, Jews Have Been Magic for Thousands of Years, Forward, May 19, 2010
http://forward.com/culture/128111/jews-have-been-magic-for-thousands-of-years/
67
Jacobs, Joseph and Blau, Ludwig, Magic, The Jewish Encyclopedia, http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/10264-magic
68
Avery-Peck, Allan J., Dr., Magic Bowls, Ancient artifacts reveal Jewish attitudes toward incantations, demons, and the
supernatural, Reprinted with permission of The Continuum International Publishing Group from The Encyclopedia of Judaism,
edited by Jacob Neusner, Alan Avery-Peck, and William Scott Green.
69
Lawson, Steven, Update-Discerning The Circle Makers advertising techniques and how they match Genesis 3, The End Time,
https://the-end-time.blogspot.com/2013/06/discerning-circle-makers-advertising.html
70
http://beginningandend.com/the-circle-maker-heresy-witchcraft-in-the-church/
71
http://www.paganspath.com/magik/circle.htmp
72
http://www.answers.com/Q/What_does_Zen-like_mean
73
Batterson, op. cit., p. 90.
74
This screen copy is from the Kindle edition of The Circle Maker, https://read.amazon.com/?asin=B005EGK0MI
75
Weiss, Russ, A Course in Miracles A Biblical Evaluation, http://www.leaderu.com/orgs/probe/docs/thcourse.html
76
Creme, Benjamin , The Reappearance of the Christ and the Masters of Wisdom, Tara Press, London, 1980 by Benjamin Crme,
p. 46. NOTE: A searchable online version is located at: http://www.share-international.org/background/faq/faq_main.htm.
77
Scripture taken from The Message. Copyright 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress
Publishing Group.
78
Weiss, Russ, ibid.
79
Branch, Rick, Watchman Fellowship Profile, http://www.watchman.org/profiles/pdf/courseinmiraclesprofile.pdf
80
Probe for Answers, https://www.probe.org/christian-science-mary-baker-eddy-and-the-bible/
81
What is A Course in Miracles?, Circle of Atonement, http://www.circleofa.org/library/articles/what-is-acim/
82
https: //www.google.com/search?q=mystic&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8#q=definition+of+mystic
83
The Circle Maker, Book p. 73; Kindle Book p. 71; Sermon 2, Dream Big: Cloudy with a Chance of Quail, p. 6.
84
http://www.baptistboard.com/threads/a-w-tozers-mystical-influences-julian-of-norwich.72223/
85
https://areyouaware.wordpress.com/2009/01/21/was-a-w-tozer-a-mystic/
86
Christians United Against Apostasy, A>W> Tozer: wonderful born again man of God, or heretical Christian mystic?,
https://davemosher.wordpress.com/2011/11/02/a-w-tozer-man-of-god-or-heretical-christian-mystic/
87
Batterson, op. cit., p. 161.
88
Magill, Frank and McGreal, Ian, Christian Spirituality, Harper and Row, San Francisco, 1988, pp. 516-520.
http://www.dwillard.org/articles/artview.asp?artID=43
89
Wink, Walter, Beyond Just War and Pacifism: Jesus Nonviolent Way, http://www.cres.org/star/_wink.htm
90
Wink, Walter, Easter: What Happened to Jesus?, Network of Spiritual Progressives, Berkeley, CA,
http://spiritualprogressives.org/newsite/?p=685
91
Martin, Douglas, Walter Wink, Theologian and Author, Dies at 76, The New York Times, May 19, 2012.
92
Alinsky, Saul D., Rules for Radicals, Vantage Books, New York, 1989, page unnumbered before Table of Contents.
93
ibid. p. 133.
94
ibid. p. 152.
95
http://www.jesus-is-savior.com/Wolves/walter_wink.htm
96
Grimsrud, Ted, Peace Theology, May 12, 2012, https://peacetheology.net/2012/05/12/a-tribute-to-walter-wink/.
97
http://www.biblestudytools.com/commentaries/jamieson-fausset-brown/2-kings/2-kings-22.html.
98
http://www.biblestudytools.com/commentaries/matthew-henry-complete/2-kings/22.html.
99
Batterson, Mark, The Circle Masker, Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 2011 by Mark Batterson, p. 147.
100
ibid., p. 179.
101
Wall Street Journal, How to Write a Thriller, July 22, 2016, p. D4.
102
See Battersons endnote in his book The Circle Maker on page 221 in reference to page 11.
103
Batterson, op. cit, p. 190.
104
The Circle Maker, Book p. 204; Kindle Book p. 202
105
https://www.moriel.org/component/k2/item/652-tbn-and-the-root-of-all-evil.html
106
Batterson, ibid., p.89; Kindle Book p. 87.
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108
109
110
111

Prasc, Jacob and Alnor, Jackie, TBN and the Root of All Evil, https://www.moriel.org/component/k2/item/652-tbn-and-theroot-of-all-evil.html
https://5ptsalt.com/2013/03/17/guilt-by-associationwhat-the-bible-teaches/
http://bible.knowing-jesus.com/topics/Bad-Company
http://apprising.org/2009/08/10/test-the-spirits-study-in-1-john-41/
Nadler, op. cit., p. 52.

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