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Author
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Topic: Evangelical Leaders Promote New Age and Eastern Spiritual Practices
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SoftTouch
Advanced Member
Member # 2316
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posted
quote:
Originally posted by helpforhomeschoolers:
Thanks for posting this Deb. This fits right in with that business that I posted about "The Secret"; every where you look folks are being conditioned to accept the coming deception.
Yes, it definitely does! It also fits into the thread you started on Warren's statement about those who don't know the name of Jesus being saved. It's all connected!
I don't know much about "Contemplative Prayer" so I did a little research... This stuff is DANGEROUS! I Pray everyone who reads this thread will take time to read the link below!
The following link will take you to the personal testimony of Cassandrah Batya. Cassandrah had been a Christian for 30 years but still found herself entangled in the deception of Contemplative prayer/spirituality. Please take the time to read her Entire Testimony! It is very revealing and will help you understand the DANGERS Many of the current Christian Leaders are leading unsuspecting Believers into…
http://achristianjourney.blogs.com/achristianjourney/2005/05/the_great_subtl.html
”The Great, Subtle Lie” of Contemplative Spirituality
(An Open Letter – July 30, 2004)
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Psalm 119:104Through thy precepts I get understanding: therefore I hate every false way. 105Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.
Posts: 3465 | Registered: Nov 2003
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helpforhomeschoolers
Advanced Member
Member # 15
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posted
Thanks for posting this Deb. This fits right in with that business that I posted about "The Secret"; every where you look folks are being conditioned to accept the coming deception.
Romans 12:2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
2 Corinthians 11:14 And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.
Posts: 4684 | From: Southern Black Hills of South Dakota | Registered: Jun 2002
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SoftTouch
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Member # 2316
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posted
http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/newagethinkaboutthat.htm
The New Age?
Why Should I Think About That?
You may be surprised how few Christians really know about the New Age ( http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/newage.htm ). They've never heard of Neale Donald Walsch ( http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/nealdonaldwalsch.htm )or Barbara Marx Hubbard ( http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/marxhubbard.htm ), and as far as they're concerned the New Age movement ended when the 60s hippie era ended. I should know ... I was one of those Christians.
After 25 years of faithfully sitting in church every week, I rarely heard the term even mentioned, let alone explained. But nearly five years ago, Dave and I were introduced to a 6'4", fellow named Ray Yungen who carried around a manuscript called A Time of Departing ( http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/atimeofdeparting.htm )and who just happened to have researched the New Age for over twenty years. "Would you take this manuscript home with you and read it?" Ray asked, as he sat across from me in a Salem, Oregon coffee shop. I took the bundle from this humble, gentle-mannered guy and brought it home. Reading it gave us the shock of our lives. Not only was the New Age alive and well, it was alive and well in the Christian church! A year and half later, we began Lighthouse Trails Publishing ( http://www.lighthousetrails.com/ )and a little later Lighthouse Trails Research Project. A Time of Departing was our first published book.
What does the term New Age really mean? Ray Yungen explains the it like this:
"The Age of Aquarius [synonymous with the New Age] is when we are all supposed to come to the understanding that man is God. As one New Age writer put it, "A major theme of Aquarius is that God is within. The goal in the Age of Aquarius will be how to bring this idea into meaningful reality."1
Contrary to what many people think, the New Age did not die out in the 60s but was slowly but surely integrating into every facet of society - medicine, business, schools, science and religion. The last frontier for the New Age to conquer was the evangelical church, and it is with great sadness we see that it has finally achieved that victory.
In order to spot New Age beliefs when they come into your church or Christian college, it helps to know who the influential New Age leaders of today are and what they are teaching. You may not have heard of them, but we guarantee their teachings have made major inroads into our society and are moving full speed ahead, altering the message of Jesus Christ as being the only way of salvation and pressing society into a mold that says, "All paths lead to God." Here are just a few:
· Barbara Marx Hubbard ( http://www.evolve.org/pub/doc/index2.html )
Her website
Her revelation
· Neale Donald Walsch ( http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/nealdonaldwalsch.htm )
· Marianne Williamson ( http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/courseinmiracles.htm )
· Deepak Chopra ( http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/deepakchopra.htm )
· Wayne Dyer (Link not working)
As you study the New Age and its leaders, you will begin to see some common themes that are now being taught by many well known Christian leaders:
· Global Peace Plans
· Meditation (i.e. contemplative prayer)
· Global Connectedness (Unity and Community)
· Ecumenism (Finding Truth in All Religions)
To understand the New Age and its effect on the church, we encourage you to listen to some of the radio interviews ( http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/audio.htm )by some of the authors and researchers we know. We also encourage you to read Ray Yungen's first book, For Many Shall Come in My Name ( http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/formanyshallcomeinmyname.htm ) and Warren Smith's free e-book, Reinventing Jesus Christ ( http://www.reinventingjesuschrist.com/ ). Both these books give excellent and compelling explanations of the New Age and it's effect on the world and in the church.
We can tell ourselves it isn't necessary to know about the New Age, that we aren't personally involved with it so why should we have to understand it? But what about our fellow brothers and sisters and friends, children and grandchildren? What is the world going to be like for them? More importantly, what is the church going to be like for them? Will what is called Christianity be recognizable in ten years? At the rate things are going today, with countless Christian leaders swaying to the New Age beat, the "gospel" will have a new definition, and while true Christianity and the gospel of Jesus Christ can never be changed, a new gospel and a New Age spirituality will counterfeit the real thing, deceiving many and presenting to the world a false christ.
Deborah Dombrowski
Editor
Lighthouse Trails Publishing
1. Ray Yungen, For Many Shall Come in My Name quoting Marion Weinstein, Positive Magic: Occult Self-Help, (Custer, Washington: Phoenix Pub., Inc. 1978), p. 19
quote:
"But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet, and the people are not warned, and the sword comes and takes any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood I will require at the watchman's hand." Ezekiel 33:6
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Psalm 119:104Through thy precepts I get understanding: therefore I hate every false way. 105Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.
Posts: 3465 | Registered: Nov 2003
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SoftTouch
Advanced Member
Member # 2316
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posted
http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/PressReleasemarhc252005.htm
Evangelical Leaders Promote New Age and Eastern Spiritual Practices
In what appears to be a sweeping phenomenon, Christian leaders are embracing practices and a new spirituality that borrows from Eastern mysticism and New Age philosophy. The changes are taking place worldwide and involve many of the most popular evangelical leaders including Rick Warren, Brian McLaren, Richard Foster, Tony Campolo, and Eugene Peterson.
In Rick Warren’s Purpose-Driven Life, on Day Eleven, he encourages people to practice “breath prayers” by repeating words and phrases over and over in a mantra-style prayer, a practice used centuries ago by a group of mystical monks known as the Desert Fathers. This so-called “prayer” is identical to that found in Hindu yoga and Zen Buddhism.
Brian McLaren, leader of the emerging church movement has been caught with his hands in the contemplative cookie jar too by endorsing the back covers of some more-than-questionable books. One in particular, Reimagining Christianity by Alan Jones says that the doctrine of the Cross is a vile doctrine. Alan Jones is an interspiritualist and mystic in every sense of the words. Take a look at the Living Spiritual Teachers Project, of which Jones is involved. This group of about twenty includes Zen and Buddhist monks, New Agers and even Marianne Williamson and her Course in Miracles. The goal of this group is to integrate other world religious beliefs into Christianity.
McLaren has also endorsed the back covers of Dave Fleming’s The Seeker’sWay and Tony Campolo’s Speaking My Mind, both of which belief that Christianity is too limiting, and a union between other religions is necessary. In Speaking My Mind, Campolo states: “[M]ysticism [contemplative prayer] provides some hope for common ground between Christianity and Islam.” (p.149)
Dan Kimball, author of The Emerging Church (with forewords by Rick Warren and Brian McLaren), encourages practices such as lectio divina, (p. 223) a form of mantra-style meditation and the use of labyrinths, maze-like structures. Historically and in most labyrinths today, a chanting prayer is used while walking the labyrinth with the purpose of connecting to God or what many call Divinity. According to most who promote labyrinths, it is not necessary to be a born-again Christian to reach this inner Divinity.
Bruce Wilkinson, author of Prayer of Jabez, does his part in bringing this new spirituality into Christendom by accepting universalist Robert Schuller’s invitation to speak at the Robert Schuller Leadership Institute this past January. Bill Hybels, senior pastor of Willow Creek and Foursquare President Jack Hayford joined Wilkinson at this year’s event. Incidentally, Hayford has no problem placing his name on the cover of Richard Foster’s Streams of Living Water, in which Foster quotes universalist Thomas Kelly as saying all human beings have a Divine Center.
Zondervan Publishing hopped on the band wagon too. A couple years ago they formed a formal partnership with Youth Specialties, host of the National Pastor’s Convention which brings in an array of New Age practices from labyrinths, contemplative prayer and yoga. Last year Rick Warren spoke immediately after the yoga workshop. This year Warren is incorporating into his Purpose-Driven Life youth ministry speakers from Youth Specialties and the pro-contemplative Group Publishing.
Ruth Haley Barton, formerly of Willow Creek and trained at the very contemplative Shalem Institute for Spiritual Formation inWashington D.C., wrote Invitation to Solitude and Silence, and teaches contemplative prayer through her Transforming Center. Barton co-authored with John Ortberg Ordinary Day With Jesus, which clearly instructs readers in mystical prayer practices. And as if that were not enough to show Ortberg’s sympathies to this New Age spirituality, he will be speaking this year at the National Pastor’s Convention where labyrinths, contemplative prayer exercises, and yoga workshops will take place.
Do not think that the infiltration stops there—Eugene Peterson, author of The Message, endorsed the back cover of Sue Monk Kidd’s book, When the Heart Waits. Monk Kidd, once a conservative Baptist, began practicing contemplative prayer and has now become a major promoter of the practice and of feminine spirituality. When the Heart Waits clearly shows her descent into this belief system. What was Peterson thinking when he put his name on that book?
Christian magazines such as Christianity Today, Charisma, Youth Worker Journal and Discipleship Journal find nothing wrong with producing article after article written by those who promote this Buddhist-style New Age spirituality. Last October, Charisma magazine, carried an article called “Be Still and Know” in which contemplative prayer is described as a trance-like state of mind. According to Ray Yungen, author of A Time of Departing, this trance-like state is an altered-state of consciousness that the Bible warns about.
Others who have helped to propel contemplative spirituality include the late Henri Nouwen who said he was uncomfortable with those who said Jesus was the only way and Richard Foster who says we should “all enroll in the school of contemplative prayer” (Celebration of Discipline) but then warns us it could be so dangerous that prayers of protection should be said first (Prayer: Finding the Heart’s True Home). In Brennan Manning’s Abba’s Child he tells readers that Dr. Beatrice Bruteau is a “trustworthy guide to contemplative consciousness. ”What many may not realize when they read Abba’s Child is that Bruteau, founder of the School of Contemplation, believes that God is in every human being and that we can reach this Divinity through the conduit of contemplative prayer. According to Bruteau, “We have realized ourselves as the Self that says only I AM, with no predicate following, not “I am a this” or “I have that quality.” Only unlimited, absolute I AM.” (A Song That Goes On Singing - Interview with B.B.)
Evangelicalism is being redefined, reimagined and reinvented, and while many of these evangelical leaders seem to be rallying behind this redefining, a growing number of Christian believers are beginning to take notice, and a legitimate concern mounts. Will evangelical leaders continue in the direction they are heading or will there be an about-face and a return to the simplicity and purity of the Christian faith? For the sake of the gospel, may that be the case.
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I have Just Discovered this site and There is MUCH Research to be considered on this site: http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/
They have studied this move towards the New Age “Christianity” In Depth! I have my reading cut out for me! I hope you’ll take the time to do the research yourselves… this is DANGEROUS Stuff! It’s leading Christians into the One World Religion of Anti-Christ!
May the Lord God Almighty – The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob – The God of Israel and the ONLY God, open your ears and eyes to see this truth! In Jesus Name I pray, AMEN. ![[Prayer]](graemlins/prayer.gif)
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Psalm 119:104Through thy precepts I get understanding: therefore I hate every false way. 105Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.
Posts: 3465 | Registered: Nov 2003
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