By Bob Unruh
WorldNetDaily

Today, we received the following e-mail from a Lighthouse Trails reader. We have removed any identifying information so as to maintain the privacy of all parties. Please see our comments below the e-mail.

To Lighthouse Trails:

As a result of a casual conversation with a friend, I was telling her about your listing of contemplative colleges.  She asked me if Liberty University was one of them.  When I e-mailed to tell her yes, she did not reply; but her husband did.  He was VERY angry at me – vehemently denied that there was any truth to information posted on your site.  Can you please help me with this?  I have been using your site for a few years now and have never found anything that was untrue.

Thank you very much for any support you can offer me in this delicate matter.

Our Response:

We do have Liberty listed as a college/university that is promoting contemplative spirituality. The information we have posted and written about Liberty is documented, and we provide this documentation for all to see. For instance in the one article we wrote, http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/newsletter021307.htm#article2, we state that David Wheeler, professor at Liberty was using contemplative leader, Mike Yaconelli’s book for his classes. Wheeler was indeed using this book, and we talked to him on the phone in 2008 to confirm this. We explain in the article the nature of Yaconelli’s book.

In this article, http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/blog/?p=2035, we listed several areas where Liberty was using contemplative materials.. Mind you, a lot of those links have now been changed by Liberty, but everything we wrote when we wrote it was true and accurate.

Liberty is still promoting Youth Specialties (one of the biggest advocates of contemplative AND emerging spirituality). In the 2010 National Youth Workers Convention website (an event presented by Youth Specialties), Liberty is listed as one of the event’s exhibitors: http://nywc.com/exhibitors/. To participate in any form of this pro-emerging event, where mystic proponents Tony Campolo and Mark Yaconelli will speak, shows that Liberty is still sympathetic toward contemplative spirituality.

Further, on Liberty’s website, they still carry the Code of Ethics which in it explains their connection with contemplative pioneer Richard Foster. http://www.liberty.edu/media/1118/%5B5975%5DAACC_Christian_Code_of_Ethics.pdf  (From page 3 of the Code:  “Although rooted primarily in an orthodox evangelical biblical theology, this Code is also influenced (according to the paradigm offered by Richard Foster) by the social justice, charismatic-pentecostal, pietistic-holiness, liturgical, and contemplative traditions of Christian theology and church history.”) If Liberty University does not agree with this strong supporting statement, they should remove the Code of Ethics from their website.

On the Liberty University Center for Worship Resource Center, they list a number of emerging/New Spirituality authors as resources for students: http://www.liberty.edu/index.cfm?PID=10757(Rob Bell, Erwin McManus, Donald Miller, Dan Kimball, David Crowder, and Michael Card, etc). Also in Liberty’s Center for Worship are two Spiritual Formation programs. (Spiritual Formation, a term developed by contemplatives Richard Foster and Dallas Willard and identified in the early 1990s by Rick Warren in The Purpose Driven Church).

Other instances where Liberty is using contemplative material: 

In Youth 201 course, they are using Ron Luce’s book for a textbook. Luce is another contemplative advocate. http://liberty.bncollege.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/BATTLE_CRY_FOR_A_GENERATION/BNCB_TextbookDetailView?catalogId=10001&storeId=22559&langId=-1&productId=500000950748&sectionId=42763398&partNumber=MBS_869060&item=Y&displayStoreId=22559.  

In DSMN course, Alan Hirsch’s book, Forgotten Ways, is being used as a text book. Hirsch too is an emerging advocate. http://liberty.bncollege.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/FORGOTTEN_WAYS/BNCB_TextbookDetailView?catalogId=10001&storeId=22559&langId=-1&productId=500000881850&sectionId=42671971&partNumber=MBS_828909&item=Y&displayStoreId=22559

Further material:

Other courses at Liberty using contemplative and/or emerging authors:

COUN 506, 373 and PACO 506, 373: Henri Nouwen (2 books)

CHMN 497 and PLED 520: Richard Foster, Celebration of Discipline

COUC 735 and 397: Dallas Willard

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.— The Rev. Ted Haggard stood at a pulpit made from stacked buckets one recent Sunday and announced his resurrection.

Mr. Haggard was forced to resign nearly four years ago as president of the politically powerful National Association of Evangelicals and to step down from the megachurch he founded, after admitting that he had bought methamphetamine from, and had a sexual encounter with, a gay prostitute.

Once one of the most prominent church leaders in the U.S., Mr. Haggard confessed in a tortured letter, calling himself “a deceiver and a liar” who had long wrestled with desires he described as “repulsive and dark.” He signed a contract promising to follow a path laid out by fellow clergy: to find a new career in a new state and to stay away from pastoral work. Click here to continue reading.

Related Story:

“Teg Haggard Story Will Raise Serious Questions For All” - From August 2006

LTRP Note: The following news story is not posted as any kind of endorsement but rather for informational and research purposes only. Please also read: Obama appoints “faith-based” advisory council, “New Spirituality” President’s Plan for Older Citizens, Obama: Grew up with “the Bible and the Koran” – Believes Many Paths Lead to God, Obama Foreshadows the Coming Spirituality

“Faith is not a political issue”
by Eleison Group

Washington, DC (August 25, 2010)—Over 70 prominent Christian leaders and denominational heads from across the ideological spectrum joined together today to call for a stop to the misrepresentation of President Obama’s Christian faith.   In an open letter, these Christian leaders called on the media, public officials, and their fellow Christians to stand with them in opposing those who continue to insinuate that the President is a Muslim, not a Christian.

The full text of the letter and a list of signatories is below.

As Christian leaders— whose primary responsibility is sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ with our congregations, our communities, and our world— we are deeply troubled by the recent questioning of President Obama’s faith. We understand that these are contentious times, but the personal faith of our leaders should not be up for public debate.

President Obama has been unwavering in confessing Christ as Lord and has spoken often about the importance of his Christian faith.  Many of the signees on this letter have prayed and worshipped with this President.  We believe that questioning, and especially misrepresenting, the faith of a confessing believer goes too far.

This is not a political issue. The signers of this letter come from different political and ideological backgrounds, but we are unified in our belief in Jesus Christ.  As Christian pastors and leaders, we believe that fellow Christians need to be an encouragement to those who call Christ their savior, not question the veracity of their faith.

Therefore, we urge public officials, faith leaders, and the media to offer no further support or airtime to those who misrepresent and call into question the President’s Christian faith.  And we join with the President in praying that God will continue to bless the United States of America. (Source – Eleison Group)

Some of the signers include:

Jim Wallis

Brian McLaren

Ron Sider

Donald Miller (Blue Like Jazz)

T. D. Jakes

Richard Stearns
(Pres. World Vision)

There are concerns about why in Lesson 8 of the Truth Project, Del Tackett uses the term “unio mystica” and “oneness.”   If Christian leaders are going to use these terms (terms that frequently and usually are used by the New Age/New Spirituality), then these Christian leaders should take care to educate their followers of Satan’s devices and the New Spirituality deception that is so prevalent with the evangelical church today. It may seem petty to some, but using such terms can, even if unknowingly, condition Christians to be more accepting of the concepts. Focus on the Family has not shown itself to be a ministry that takes spiritual deception serious in that they have and do continue to promote contemplative spirituality, a spirituality that fits right in with the New Age terms of unio mystica and oneness.

One website describes how contemplative prayer is synonymous with unio mystical: [quote]Contemplative prayer helps to calm the mind and cultivate inner silence. It seeks to reach a non-conceptual, loving awareness of the Divine. Its ultimate aim is the unio mystica, the divine union in which the human soul gets merged in the Godhead. http://meditation-techniques.suite101.com/article.cfm/contemplative_prayer#ixzz0xwVSqlTR[/quote]

We are not trying to say here that the Truth Project is necessarily trying to inadvertently promote contemplative mysticism, but we do believe  a caution is worth noting, especially in view of the immense popularity of The Truth Project as well as contemplative spirituality. There is an interesting question and comment by a reader on Del Tackett’s website (http://deltackett.com/2007/09/20/a-silent-killer-in-the-house/). The reader stated: [quote]How does one protect their family from subtle lies mixed with truth in Christian articles, books, etc., in today’s society? For example, our kids were told at church (one we no longer attend) to “repeat a word over and over until your mind becomes silent, thereby silencing your mind” in order to “become one with yourself and God.” This church also said you couldn’t deepen in your relationship with God if you didn’t practice the spiritual disciplines put forth by Richard Foster.

We love your “Truth Project” and would like to hear your thoughts in a blog on the new and upcoming contemplative spirituality, spiritual disciplines, and lectio divina that seems to be taking the Christian world by storm.[/quote] This family is obviously concerned about what they see as a clear and present danger today. The question remains, will Focus on the Family and Del Tackett see it? Or will they keep talking about unio mystical and oneness without issuing a strong warning to the body of Christ. Will they continue to promote contemplative advocates like Gary Thomas and Richard Foster? Ironically, the title of Tackett’s website article is called “A Silent Killer in the House” (referring to carbon monoxide). Well, there is a “silent” killer in the church. It is called contemplative prayer.

Other information: http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/blog/?p=4497.

by Herescope

Day 6, we toured Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell, and the many sites associated with our nation’s founding. In the mean time, David [Barton] and I flew back to New York City to be on the Glenn Beck Show with a group of about 7-8 pastors / Christian Leaders. Lance Wallnau flew in from Dallas to speak to the group in Philadelphia. Lance Wallnau was, as usual, exceptional in his laying out of how to see the culture transformed. After the show, David and I flew back to Philadelphia to catch up with the group once again.

- Jim Garlow [1]

A COMMENTARY
BY BILL RANDLES
BELIEVERS IN GRACE FELLOWSHIP

Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.(Psalm 2:1-2)

Watching the way President Obama, Mayor Bloomberg and other assorted Religious , media and political leaders took their stand  with those seeking to install a Mosque on the site of the worst mass murder of American citizens in history, has been instructive.

About 80 percent of the American people think it is an outrage of biblical proportions, to install what amounts to a monument to victory over the infidels, at ground zero. What does it mean then that the movers and shakers in politics and media support the so called “Cordoba project” at the same rate?

The penny dropped when the plight of an Orthodox church which was destroyed at the same site came to light. After 9 years, St Nicholas church has been run through a zoning purgatory and has yet to be given leave to rebuild! The Mosque has been rubber stamped, fast-tracked but for the negative publicity. The church which was destroyed by 9-11 is in the doldrums.

Then I remembered the Word of the Lord, the second Psalm , which predicts a time of worldwide confusion and breakdown. The Heathen rage… That is , the nations are in an uproar. The people Imagine a vain thing...The minds of the people have been emptied, they chase vanity, they cling to an empty ideal. And the question is  Why?

The answer is that The Kings of the earth and their Rulers…(Not just the political class, but all of the opinion shapers, pundits, the leaders in Education, Media and respectable religion)  Have taken counsel against the Lord and His Christ… When did they take this counsel ?

Most likely they did when they went to University, or even earlier, they were steeped in an anti-christian worldview, they rejected the western consensus, especially the contribution of Christianity to this greatest civilization the world has ever seen.

The West has a culture, developed over thousands of years, whose roots are twofold, Greco-Roman and Judeo Christian. But a culture cannot be maintained without a cultus, the germ of the culture, the spirituality of it, which is Judeo Christianity.

What  the contrast between the “Cordoba Mosque” and St Nicholas Orthodox church has shown, is that the “Kings of the earth and their rulers,” are doing everything they can to neutralise the christian element, silencing it wherever possible, stifling it, relegating it to just one of thousands of other religions any of which is as valid , if not more so, than the professed religion of most of this nation.

How else do we explain the nonsensical and vastly unpopular immigration policies of western nations such as Great Britain, the Netherlands, and the USA ? Flooding once civilized societies with millions of assimilable immigrants, such as Muslims, literally importing hostile populations who loathe their hosts in spite of the generous welfare benefits which they enroll in.It doesn’t make sense!

But it has to do with change, for these “kings and rulers”  hate the West as it is, and seek to obliterate it’s distinctive traditions, especially it’s religious heritage,in order to pursue what David prophesied  as “The Vain Imagination”, which is a humanistic, godless,utopia.

The Muslims, with their hypersensitivity which only runs one way, are ideal “change agents”, perfect for the task of wiping away the remnant public expressions of our Christian societal influence.

Every time an American meat packing house is forced to change it’s hours for Ramadan, or an airport installs at public expense a foot bath for Muslim a cab driver , or in this case a Mosque is erected on the same site as the worst massacre on American soil, the heart of the nation is demoralised. Is this what they mean by death by a thousand cuts?

The Counsel, that the Kings of the earth have taken is described as the casting off of the shackles of the religion of God and Christ-(Judeo Christianity)-

“Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us…”

Remember Obama proudly proclaiming to the Muslim world that America is no longer a christian nation? Obama is only the most blatant of them.

This explains another riddle, how do the champions of abominations such as “Gay marriage” and abortion, find common cause with Wahabi Muslims who if given the power would behead the Homo’s first of all?? The answer is in the old Arab proverb- the enemy of my enemy is my friend-(for now).

The kings of the earth and their rulers, side with Islam, in fact they have used Islam, because although Islam and they are at polar opposites in every other respect, they have one over-riding thing in common, they seek to overthrow the God of the Judeo Christian west,and obliterate the culture that grew out of such a faith.

This doesn’t end well folks, buckle your seat belts and read the rest of the second Psalm!

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