Archive for the ‘Spiritual Formation’ Category

from Nick
A Lighthouse Trails reader

 My hope is that this might benefit someone, if not in the writing of it, but in the responses it might receive. Telling myself always in all that I do, I try to do for the Glory of God.

   The need to unburden is great. I cry over the lost joy I had in going to church, and I’ve stopped attending. I feel the pull to go back, if anything to be a witness to what is transpiring since to my shame there seems to be little I can do to change the direction my church is heading in. Yet I can’t stop trying!   

    It began three years ago when a lady who attends my church and temporarily worked where I do, wanted to know if I had ever heard of the book called Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell. She read it and was concerned with the contents. It was being taught in the youth group which her daughter was a part of. She asked me to see what I could find out about the book and the author. I had never heard of the book or the author, but figured that I should be able to Google it and find what I needed without actually having to read the book. Little did I know what I was in for!  I’m sure many of you if not all of you have been equally surprised to find that there is an abundance of material in this arena. Sadly, most of it is positive on the subject, and increasingly the norm in Christian circles. On one of my searches I came across Lighthouse Trails! Boy were my eyes opened and of cause I will be forever grateful for those at Lighthouse Trails and those who have stayed faithful to the Word of God. I can now include this blog [the LT Forum] in that blessing as well.

   I never realized that any movement of this size touching all areas of society and more importantly the church could exist so under cover!  The words Emergent Church, Spiritual Formation, Centering Prayer, Labyrinth, etc… They weren’t even a part of my vocabulary at the time.  I thought Labyrinth was a movie! Now I can hear terms from unexpected places that brings my heart to my throat and my mind starts to scream, please God no!!!!!!  Even as I write this my eyes tear for this deception that is sinking its claws into not only my church, but countless others. 

   From Lighthouse Trails I ordered the book by Ray Yungen For Many Shall Come In My Name.  This is where I first was introduced to the concept or should I say the term Centering Prayer.  The subject matter so moved me that I ordered 10 copies and provided it to my pastor to distribute it to the ministry team at church. Thinking maybe they were unaware of the direction the church was moving in. Looking back I never realized how naïve I was! How unprepared! I believed that the books would be read and I would receive some type of response. Negative! Upon giving the Pastor the book and its copies, the reaction was not what I hoped for. He looked at the back and said that it had no supporting commentaries on the back. Looking inside, he said it looks like he’s probably a Baptist. Getting over the shock of that statement, or should I say trying not to show how much that statement shocked me, I told him that the supporting commentaries might get me to read the book, but it would be the contents that would make or break the book for me.  He thanked me and took the books with a promise of getting back to me. 

   The church is of good size. It has about 800 or more members with easily 1000 to 1500 attending two services on any given Sunday. The Easter program will have up to 8,000 going through its doors in less than a week. Since it was around this time I had given him the books, I didn’t anticipate him getting back to me promptly. I was also hopeful that the ministry team would also provide him feedback. Time passed and not a word. As days, weeks, and months passed I started to believe nothing was going to come of opening this dialogue with my pastor.  After some time I attempted to reconnect with him by e-mail in order to set up a meeting between us. I’d say about six months later.

   With his initial reaction in receiving the books, and with the passing of time, my hope that anything positive would come of this, started to dwindle. During the wait I continued to research online and started to compile quotes and references garnered from different sites into a binder. There is so much material!  I’m not ashamed to say, I was overwhelmed. The subjects seemed to cross over into each other. An example of this is a chart showing the connectivity between individuals that was so intertwined, that a Rubik’s Cube would have been easier to figure out than this chart!   

   I asked myself how to put this data into a form whereby whoever I gave it to could research through it and not be overwhelmed as I had been. Trying to provide something that was compact, researchable, and most importantly supported by scripture was what I aimed for.   Listing by author instead of by subject seemed the best way to go. I decided if I went the other way, I’d have to have a binder for each subject! 

   With a starting point of Rob Bell, through Philip Yancy and still finding more, the meeting that I had been dreading to have finally occurred. More than half a year had passed. By then I had put together a binder with 24 different authors, preachers, teachers, in a little over a hundred pages. I had left out much because some of the information did not have direct references I could locate, while others had none at all.  The reason for this was if I were to provide the binder to someone, I didn’t want it to be unsupported, allowing the person to treat it as gossip or someone being spitefulness. My intention was not to present my Pastor with the binder at our next meeting because the meeting had to deal with the book by Ray Yungen. My wife warned me that it wouldn’t be right to come out of the clear blue sky with this binder or “blind side” him with it.  I told her that I was taking it with me, but would allow the Holy Spirit to move me on whether I would give the binder to Pastor. If the Holy Spirit provided the opportunity then I would use the binder, if not then I would hold on to it for another time.  Not being a theologian and feeling extremely worried about the meeting I prayed myself up and turned it over to God. Continuing to tell myself, “His will not mine.” 

   This is how naïve I was and to some extent still am.  Even though he had neither provided the books to the ministry team and only scanned the book himself.  I believed the meeting went well.  In the meeting he mentioned that a couple of ladies had brought similar observations to his attention, and even stated that should he find out what was being said was true, he would have the churches article of faith change to reflect that it would not accept such doctrine! Strong words! Joyful words to my ears! This I believe is where the Holy Spirit took over. Amazing!!!! Right after stating what he would do, he told me that he had told the ladies that they would need documentation on the subject matter before he would address it. I guess the book wasn’t enough. We do serve an amazing God my brothers and sisters! Here I was sitting with this binder in my briefcase!  I looked at him and said “it just so happens I have a binder containing such information” and pulled out the binder and handed it to him. When I pulled out the binder, I don’t know if he was pleased or not, but he was definitely surprised. At that moment I felt such a filling of joy that I could have run a marathon with the energy I felt!!!!  Being an admin person, I attempted to make it presentable and easy to utilize. Even had a table of contents listing each author with the name of the documents reflected under each one.  He told me he would look into it once the Easter play was done. My hope was running high! 

   Sadly, another meeting between us has never happened. It has been two years and the binder has made its way into the associate pastor’s hands a half year after providing the binder to the pastor. The associate pastor told me he didn’t know what to do with it; I told him he should return it to the pastor.  I’m assuming he did.  I haven’t mentioned things like psychedelic lights occurring during one praise and worship service (I complained and it hasn’t happened again. At least not while I was still going regularly). On stage with the men’s choir and hearing an individual who is now titled the Director of Spiritual Formation say on communion “it’s worthy to be worshipped”! I used to be Catholic and in a Catholic Church I would not have been surprised to hear this! But in [an Evangelical] Church? No Way!!! It hit me so hard, I wanted to do like scripture mentions when people start to mourn. I wanted to rip my shirt, pour ashes on myself and run out of the place screaming!  However, this happened during the first service and there was another service to go! My hope was that somehow I had misheard what he had said (I have a hearing problem called Tinnitus. For anyone who believes in the “silencing” of their mind to commune with God, I’d welcome the discussion).  He did not repeat it during the second service, but the seed was planted in my mind. I still believe the comment was said.  Small groups have become the norm covering Spiritual Formation books. Even on Facebook I see the Associate Pastor and Director of SF providing links or quotes from  Emergent/SF individuals and associated sites.  I’ve taken a worship class that would make for another example but the details of it would lengthen this post even more than it already is.

   I’ve done nothing since then in addressing this with my Pastor. I feel like a very poor servant for our Lord.   To be honest I’m torn between completely severing ties with the church and continuing to go. I love the people in this church. If I was a teacher I’d ask to be allowed to teach a class on the subject. I’m not. My knowledge base is poor and my skills in this area even worse.

   I’m praying on once again opening dialogue with my Pastor (by e-mail) and asking bluntly if the church is Emergent and/or Universalist.   I don’t know if he’s rationalized the changes or truly doesn’t see the danger involved, but his ministry staff is all for it, and sadly even his wife (Creative Arts Ministry Director). My heart goes out to him and yet I have this need to have him say yes, so I can move on.  I know this is not right, yet I can’t seem to help myself. God continues to show me that this is not going away.

   Since I’ve been typing this post, I’ve sent out the e-mail posing the question above. His reply was an empathically typed “NO”!
 
   I’ve posted this here in hope and prayer that I might receive suggestions from others who have been in the same boat, or who are more knowledgeable in scripture on what to do next.  I’ve even had the thought to provide this post to him as well. I don’t know. My Brothers & Sisters in Christ, if you all can provide any help it would be appreciated. Even more importantly, your prayers would be welcomed.   

Nick
A Believer in Christ Jesus who is my Lord and Savior. One who cries not only for the church but for this country as well.

LTRP Note: If you would like to respond to Nick, you may do so on our Forum.

In the August 2010 cover story of Christianity Today, the magazine has brought out two things that the major Christian media has thus far ignored – one, that Beth Moore, described as “the most popular Bible teacher in America”  by CT is a proponent of contemplative prayer, and two, that there is a debate over whether contemplative meditation is of Eastern religious origin or not. This Lighthouse Trails special report will look at both of these facets, Beth Moore’s contemplative propensities (incidentally, she is noted in CT  for influencing “millions” of women) and the vital question as to whether contemplative prayer is indeed rooted in Eastern mysticism. 

Christianity Today hit the nail right on the head when it informed its readers that:

“Critics argue that contemplative prayer is rooted in Eastern mysticism and thus not a practice that Christians should engage in.”

Lighthouse Trails has always warned that contemplative prayer is in fact rooted in Eastern mysticism, with a heavy emphasis on the word “rooted.” In Ray Yungen’s book, A Time of Departing, Yungen brings out that contemplative prayer was created by the Desert Fathers, a group of monks who lived in the desert during the early middle ages. Quoting Ken Kaisch, A Time of Departing reveals:

It was a time of great experimentation with spiritual methods. Many different kinds of disciplines were tried, some of which are too harsh or extreme for people today. Many different methods of prayer were created and explored by them. (Finding God, p. 191).

At the time, the city of Alexandria, close to where the Desert Fathers existed, was a stronghold of Eastern mysticism through the connection of King Alexander’s link to India. It is believed that the Desert Fathers utilized Eastern style meditation practices (i.e., mantra meditation), but instead of using Hindu or Buddhist mantras, they tailored this Eastern style prayer to their Christian beliefs, using “Christian” mantras. As an early treatise on contemplative prayer written by an anonymous monk, The Cloud of Unknowing, describes:  ”Take just a little word, of one syllable rather than of two . . . With this word you are to strike down every kind of thought under the cloud of forgetting.” This is why all the major icons of contemplative prayer (Thomas Merton, Thomas Keating, Henri Nouwen, etc) echo the same spiritual perceptions as Eastern meditation practitioners. Thomas Merton said as he was leaving on a trip to South Asia to address Hindu and Buddhist monks: ” We left the ground– I with Christian mantras and a great sense of destiny, of being at last on my true way after years of waiting and wandering … I am going home, to the home where I have never been in this body. ” (Merton’s Asian Journal, pp. ). Henri Nouwen echoed this when he said that Hinduism, Buddhism, and the Muslim (i.e., Sufism) religion offered many treasures for the spiritual life of the Christian (in the foreword of Thomas Ryan’s Disciplines for Christian Living).

For those who are still skeptical, the co-founder of one of the largest centers for teaching contemplative prayer, Tilden Edwards of The Shalem Institute, said that contemplative prayer is “the Western bridge to Far Eastern spirituality” (Edwards, Spiritual Friend, p. 18). How much more clear can this be? We could go on and on to verify the link between Eastern religion and contemplative spirituality. We have documented over 200 pages in A Time of Departing, not to mention article after article with continued documentation.

Returning to Beth Moore, while it may come as a surprise to many Christianity Today readers that Moore is being identified with contemplative “mysticism,” it is no surprise to Lighthouse Trails because in the spring of 2006, Moore was included in our coverage of a Fox Home Entertainment film titled Be Still,* an infomercial for contemplative spirituality.  Shortly after the DVD was released, Lighthouse Trails spoke with Moore’s personal assistant who said that Moore did not have a problem with Richard Foster or Dallas Willard’s teachings. To reiterate this, Living Proof Ministries issued a  statement a few weeks after the release of the DVD that stated: “[W]e believe that once you view the Be Still video you will agree that there is no problem with its expression of Truth.” Living Proof offered to send a free copy of the DVD to anyone who receives their email statement and wishes to view the DVD, saying that, “[I]t would be our privilege to do this for you to assure you that there is no problem with Beth’s participation in the Be Still video.” This statement was issued because several women contacted Moore’s ministry after reading the Lighthouse Trail report on the Be Still DVD.

In the Be Still DVD, countless enticements, references, and comments clearly show its affinity with contemplative spirituality. For instance, Richard Foster says that anyone can practice contemplative prayer and become a “portable sanctuary” for God. This backs up other statements by Foster over the course of the past thirty years in which he believes that even a non-believer in Christ can participate in the “spiritual discipline” of silence and have an encounter with God. The assumption by all mystics is that God dwells in all people, and meditation will help them to realize their own Divinity. This panentheistic view of God is very typical for contemplatives. As Ray Yungen points out, those who practice contemplative prayer begin to view God through panentheistic (God in all) and interspiritual (all is united) eyes. Thomas Merton, whom Foster has admired publicly for many years, believed that all human beings have divinity within, and this divinity can be accessed through contemplative prayer, thereby making the Cross of Jesus unnecessary for union with God. We believe that the reason for this change in spiritual outlook for those who continue practicing contemplative meditation (i.e., mantra-like meditation) is that these altered states of consciousness actually engage the practitioner with demonic realms leading to spiritual deception.

The underlying theme of the Be Still DVD is that we cannot truly know God or be intimate with Him without contemplative prayer and the state of silence that it produces. While the DVD is vague and lacking in actual instruction on word or phrase repetition (which lies at the heart of contemplative prayer), it is very misleading, to say the least. What they don’t say in the DVD is that this state of stillness or silence is, for the most part, achieved through some method such as mantra-like meditation. The purpose of the DVD, in essence, is not to instruct in contemplative prayer but rather to make you and your family hungry for it. The DVD even promises that practicing the silence will heal your family problems.

The thoughtful and discerning Christian needs to ask whether the Be Still DVD is an accurate “expression of Truth,” as Beth Moore says it is, and is there truly “no problem with Beth’s participation” in this project? Considering the fact that Christianity Today calls Moore “the most popular Bible teacher in America,” these are fair questions to ask. Moore has the potential of leading  millions of women in a spiritually dangerous direction. Those women in turn will bring this mystical teaching home to their husbands, children, and churches. In the Be Still DVD, Moore states: “[I]f we are not still before Him [God], we will never truly know to the depths of the marrow of our bones that He is God. There’s got to be a stillness.” Moore says that it is not possible to “truly know” that He is God without “a stillness.” She is not talking about a quiet place to pray and spend time in God’s word, but rather she is talking about a stillness of the mind – this is what contemplatives strive for – unless you practice this stillness of the mind, your relationship with the Lord is inadequate. According to Beth Moore, you don’t even know Him in the way you should.

Many reading this may be asking, is there any other evidence as to where Moore really stands with regard to contemplative. The answer to that may at least partially be found in a book she wrote in 2002 called When Godly People Do Ungodly Things. In a section about “Unceasing Prayer,” Moore states:

I have picked up on the terminology of Brother Lawrence [a Carmelite mystic who said he "cried out, singing and dancing  violently like a madman" when he went into the "presence"1], who called praying unceasingly practicing God’s presence. In fact, practicing God’s presence has been my number one goal for the last year. (p. 109)

Moore says: “A head full of biblical knowledge without a heart passionately in love with Christ is terribly dangerous–a stronghold waiting to happen. The head is full, but the heart and soul are still unsatisfied” (p. 60). This language is very indicative of contemplatives and echoes Richard Foster who said we have become barren within or Rick Warren who says the church is not fully mature without spiritual formation ala Foster and Willard (i.e., contemplative prayer)  (The Purpose Driven Church, p. 126-127 ). However, all of this talk leads one to think that the Word of God is little more than a philosophy and needs the help of contemplative prayer to be effective at all. The insinuation is that the Holy Spirit is dormant and ineffective without this vital stimuli.  Contemplatives are making a distinction between studying and meditating on the Word of God versus loving Him, suggesting that we cannot love Him or know Him simply by studying His Word or even through normal prayer–we must practice contemplative to accomplish this. But the Bible makes it clear that the Word of God is living and active, and it is in filling our minds with it that we come to love Him and know Him, not through a mystical practice that is never once mentioned in the Bible, except in warnings against vain repetitions (Matthew 6:7) and Old Testament warnings against seeking to make contact with the spirit world or going into altered states of consciousness (Deuteronomy 18:11).

In Moore’s book, she makes frequent references to contemplative pioneer Brennan Manning, stating that his contribution to “our generation of believers may be a gift without parallel” (p. 72). This is indeed a troubling statement made by “the most popular Bible teacher in America.”  No doubt, many of the women who follow Moore, in reading her comments about Manning and her quoting of him have turned to the writings of Manning for further insights. Why wouldn’t they when their favorite Bible teacher speaks so highly of him? When they do turn to him, they will find that Manning is a devout admirer of Beatrice Bruteau, founder of  The School for Contemplation. Bruteau wrote the foreword to a book called The Mystic Heart by New Age mystic Wayne Teasdale, a book that actually lays out that contemplative prayer will unite Christianity with all the world’s religions at a mystical level. And yet, in Manning’s book, Abba’s Child, he says that Bruteau is a “trustworthy guide to contemplative consciousness.”  Manning  backs his love for “contemplative consciousness” by stating the following:

[T]he first step in faith is to stop thinking about God at the time of prayer. (The Signature of Jesus, p. 212)

Choose a single, sacred word or phrase that captures something of the flavor of your intimate relationship with God. A word such as Jesus, Abba, Peace, God or a phrase such as “Abba, I belong to you.” … Without moving your lips, repeat the sacred word inwardly, slowly, and often. (SoJ, p. 218)

When distractions come, … simply return to listening to your sacred word…. [G]ently return [your mind] to your sacred word. (SoJ, p. 218)

[E]nter into the great silence of God. Alone in that silence, the noise within will subside and the Voice of Love will be heard. (SoJ, p. 218)

This is the contemplative prayer that Beth Moore is promoting – Manning’s contemplative prayer. Furthering Beth Moore’s great admiration for Manning, she quotes him from his book Ragamuffin Gospel calling the book “one of the most remarkable books” (p. 290) she has ever read. But it is this very book that reveals Manning’s true affinity with contemplative spirituality. In the back of the book, Manning makes reference to Catholic priest and mystic Basil Pennington saying that Pennington’s methods will provide us with “a way of praying that leads to a deep living relationship with God.” However, most assuredly Pennington’s methods of prayer draw from Eastern religions. In his book, Finding Grace at the Center, Pennington says:

We should not hesitate to take the fruit of the age-old wisdom of the East and “capture” it for Christ. Indeed, those of us who are in ministry should make the necessary effort to acquaint ourselves with as many of these Eastern techniques as possible. Many Christians who take their prayer life seriously have been greatly helped by Yoga, Zen, TM and similar practices. (from A Time of Departing, 2nd ed., p.64, quoting Finding Grace at the Center, pp. 5-6)

Pennington also says that the Holy Spirit is the soul of the human family (Centered Living, The Way of Centering Prayer, p. 104).

In Ragamuffin Gospel, Manning cites Carl Jung as well as interspiritualists and contemplative mystics, Anthony De Mello (see note below), Marcus Borg (denies the Virgin birth and Jesus being Son of God), Morton Kelsey, Gerald May, Henri Nouwen, Annie Dillard, Alan Jones (who denies the atonement), Eugene Peterson, and goddess worshipper Sue Monk Kidd. This is a list of mystics that any discerning Bible teacher would never point followers to either directly or indirectly!

For Moore to call Manning’s book “remarkable” and to say his contribution to this generation of believers is “a gift without parallel” leads one to conclude that Beth Moore has absorbed Manning’s spirituality. And if that is the case, which we believe it to be, then Moore, as nice and well intentioned as she may be, has become another conduit for a panentheistic spirituality.

 What makes the Christianity Today’s August issue noteworthy is that this is the first time to our knowledge since the beginning of Lighthouse Trails in 2002 where a major Christian media has publicly recognized that there is a “debate” going on about contemplative spirituality (i.e., spiritual formation). While they did not identify  Lighthouse Trails as one of the “critics” of this debate, nevertheless they have  helped to bring it to the table and give it a broader platform. We would like to note here that over the past eight years thousands of believers have contacted Lighthouse Trails and do see what is taking place. This is not just something that only a handful of people see, albeit a minority in the church.

Lighthouse Trails sincerely implores Beth Moore and all Christian leaders going in the contemplative direction to take an honest look at the evidence that contemplative prayer IS rooted in Eastern mysticism. Nothing else explains the affinity that so many practitioners have for Hinduism, Buddhism, and Sufism. As Merton told a Sufi teacher, “My prayer tends very much to what you call fana” (Thomas Merton, My Brother, Pennington, p. 115). Fana is the same as Hindu Samadhi and Buddhist nirvana. Merton went on to explain how mystical meditation even eclipses the need to believe in Jesus’ atoning and saving work on the Cross. To the Sufi teacher, Merton stated:

Personally, in matters where dogmatic beliefs differ, I think that controversy [“the doctrine of atonement or the theory of redemption,” said the Sufi teacher] is of little value because it takes us away from the spiritual realities into the realm of words and ideas . . . . But much more important is the sharing of the experience of divine light, . . . It is here that the area of fruitful dialogue exists between Christianity and Islam. (Merton and Sufism, p. 109)

It is essential to grasp the significance of what is being said here: Merton believed that the doctrines that are the essence of Christianity (such as atonement and salvation) were irrelevant and actually, if taken seriously, were an  impediment to religious unity. The complete union of all the world’s religions cannot be accomplished  without a form of mysticism within Christianity-that form is contemplative prayer, the very thing that a growing and large number of Christian leaders are propagating today!

It is this that motivates Lighthouse Trails to continue issuing a warning. We are not haters, as some have supposed; in fact we love people,( including those who promote contemplative prayer) and feel compelled to warn them about the spiritual land mines buried within the mystical paths on which they have embarked.

Footnote:

1. The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence, translated by John Delaney, Image Books, 1977, p. 34

---

Note: The writer of the Christianity Today article, “First Came the Bible,” is Halee Gray Scott, a writer and a faculty member at Wesley Seminary and A. W. Tozer Theological Seminary. She is a Ph.D. candidate at Talbot School of Theology, where her research interests include leadership development and spiritual formation.

Many of the quotes in this report are taken from A Time of Departing. Click here for information on A Time of Departing by Ray Yungen.

Also read: Richard Foster and the Be Still DVD

*To view a transcript of the entire Be Still DVD, please contact us.

Quote by ANTHONY DEMELLO ON CONTEMPLATIVE SILENCE:

To silence the mind is an extremely difficult task. How hard it is to keep the mind from thinking, thinking, thinking, forever thinking, forever producing thoughts in a never ending stream. Our Hindu masters in India have a saying: one thorn is removed by another. By this they mean that you will be wise to use one thought to rid yourself of all the other thoughts that crowd into your mind. One thought, one image, one phrase or sentence or word that your mind can be made to fasten on. Anthony de Mello, Sadhana: A Way to God (St. Louis, the Institute of Jesuit Resources, 1978), p. 28.

Bible Study Fellowship, a ministry of Bible studies that has been around for over 50 years, is utilized by many Bible believing Christians. On the BSF website, it states: “In all, there are over 1,000 BSF classes with 200,000 class members in 38 nations across six continents! Over 800 of the classes are held in the U.S.”

Recently, a number of BSF supporters/participants contacted Lighthouse Trails with concerns that the organization may be becoming influenced by contemplative sources, most likely unbeknownst to many or most of BSF board of directors and Bible Study teachers. In the May 2010 issue of the BSF magazine, a book list includes three contemplative proponents: contemplative pioneer Dallas Willard, emerging proponent Dan Allender, and Pastor Timothy Keller of Redeemed Presbyterian in New York.

BSF does give a disclaimer on their magazine stating: ”The books listed do not necessarily represent the BSF point of view in their entirety but are recommended to challenge your thinking and enlarge your understanding of the world and the church”; however, as we have explained before in other articles, regardless of such disclaimers, recommending heretical teachers is just that, and it can have serious repercussions. Pointing to Dallas Willard can potentially lead readers into the arms of Thomas Merton and Henri Nouwen; and that goes the same for Keller and Allender. On Willard’s website, some of the mystics he resonates with and recommends are Teresa of Avila (see Castles in the Sand), Henri Nouwen, St. Ignatius of Loyola, Richard Foster, Madam Guyon, and Jan Johnson – all proponents of a mantra-style meditation.

Worth noting, on a second page of the four page BSF May 2010 magazine, in an editorial article by BSF executive director, Susan Rowan, Rowan quotes Eugene Peterson’s The Message, which has proven to be a most untrustworthy paraphrase of God’s Word. Additionally, Peterson himself is a strong proponent of contemplative spirituality, is one of the main endorsers of The Shack, and embraces the spirituality of Sue Monk Kidd, who worships the goddess Sophia.1

Lighthouse Trails contacted the BSF office, but was unable to reach anyone. If you are using BSF material or know of someone who does, we urge you to contact the organization and beseech them to reconsider their promotion of contemplative-promoting authors. While a mere quote by The Message and a few book recommendations may seem trivial to some, we know from experience that typically when a ministry or organization opens the door, even ever so slightly, to contemplative resources, it is just a matter of time before the organization becomes influenced with it. In Ms. Rowan’s article, she says that “BSFers are proving that they are fully engaged with Jesus Christ and His work.” If contemplative spirituality (i.e., spiritual formation and the new spirituality) reorient this ministry, they will become “engaged” with the mystics, and we know the Bible says we cannot serve both God and man. “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.” Matthew 6:24

When one looks through the websites of Christian colleges, organizations, churches, and ministries, one can easily see that contemplative has indeed had a significant presence. Lighthouse Trails’ very existence is to point out that we believe what II Thessalonians refers to as the falling away from real Christianity to a false mystical “Christianity.” When we look at the statements and beliefs of Thomas Merton and Henri Nouwen, this is glaringly apparent.

Bible Study Fellowship International
19001 Huebner Rd
San Antonio, Texas 78258
(210) 492-4676.

by David Cloud
Way of Life Ministries

Richard Foster’s writings have been at the forefront of the contemplative movement since the 1970s. No one has done more than this man to spread contemplative mysticism throughout Protestant and Baptist churches.

Foster’s book Celebration of Discipline, which has sold more than two and a half million copies, was selected by Christianity Today as one of the top ten books of the 20th century. (For this review I obtained multiple editions of Celebration of Discipline, plus three other books by Foster.)

The Quaker Connection

He grew up among the Quakers (the Religious Society of Friends), was trained at George Fox College, has pastored Quaker churches, and has taught theology at Friends University in Wichita, Kansas, and at George Fox. One website calls him “perhaps the best known Quaker in the world today.”

The Quaker connection is important, because one of their peculiar doctrines is direct revelation via an “inner light.” This is defined in a variety of ways, since Quakerism is very individualistic and non-creedal, but it refers to a divine presence and guidance in every man. There is an emphasis on being still and silent and passive in order to receive guidance from the inner light. Other terms for it are “light of God,” “light of Christ,” “inward light,” “the light,” “light within,” “Christ within,” and “spirit of Christ.”

George Fox used the expression “that of God in everyone.” In his journal Fox said, “I was glad that I was commanded to turn people to that inward light, spirit, and grace, by which all might know their salvation, and their way to God; even that divine Spirit which would lead them into all Truth, and which I infallibly knew would never deceive any” (The Journal of George Fox, revised by John Nickalls, 1952, p. 35).

Another prominent Quaker, Robert Barclay, called this “the light of the heart” and said “there is an evangelical and saving Light and grace in all.”

Isaac Pennington said, “There is that near you which will guide you; Oh wait for it, and be sure ye keep to it.”

The inner light teaching is said to be based on John 1:9 — “That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.” Yet this verse does not say that there is a divine light in every man. It merely says that Christ gives light to every man. The epistle of Romans tells us more about this. There is the light of creation (Romans 1:20), the light of conscience (Romans 2:14-16), and the light of the Scripture (Romans 3:2). When men respond to the light that they have, they are given more light (Acts 17:26-27).

Because of the fall, man’s heart is darkened and foolish (Rom. 1:21; Eph. 4:18).

The inner light teaching was exalted above reliance on the Bible. Martin Meeker says, “… the early Quakers’ reliance on the Bible as a source of spiritual knowledge and inspiration was secondary to their belief in the Inner Light as the primary path to salvation and communication with God” (The Doctrine of the Inner Light). Click here to read more.

Related Information:

Richard Foster’s Legacy Endures – Christian Leaders Help to Make it So

By Matt Cover,
Staff Writer, CNS News

(CNSNews.com) – The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted on Thursday to begin the formal process of bringing the Internet under greater federal control – a move sought by both President Barack Obama and FCC Chairnman Julius Genachowski–even though federal law calls for an Internet “unfettered by Federal or State regulation.”

This step comes after the federal D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals in April rebuked the FCC in its attempt to enforce a controversial regulatory doctrine called Net Neutrality, which would allow the government to prevent private Internet providers from deciding which applications to allow on their networks.

The court said that the FCC did not have the authority to prevent Comcast, specifically, from blocking certain peer-to-peer Web sites.

The FCC is now trying to reclassify the Internet to broaden its authority over the Web. Currently, the FCC only has “ancillary” authority, meaning it can regulate Internet access only in the process of regulating another service that it has direct authority over, such as television or cable. Click here to continue reading.

Today, we received an email from a Lighthouse Trails reader who had purchased a copy of Castles in the Sand from Amazon. The customer received the notice below from Amazon telling them that since they liked Castles in the Sand, they might also like Henri Nouwen’s book, Spiritual formation: Following the Movements of the Spirit. We want to issue this warning that Henri Nouwen was a proponent of contemplative mysticism, the kind that Castles in the Sand so clearly warns against. At the end of Nouwen’s life, after years of following the mystical path, in the last book he wrote, he said these words:

Dear Amazon.com Customer,

As someone who has purchased or rated Castles in the Sand  by Carolyn A. Greene, you might like to know that Spiritual Formation: Following the Movements of the Spirit will be released on June 29, 2010.

From Back Cover: Henri Nouwen, the world-renowned spiritual guide and counselor, understood the spiritual life as a journey of faith and transformation that is deepened by accountability, community, and relationships. Though he counseled many people during his lifetime, his principles of spiritual direction and formation were never written down. Two of Nouwen’s longtime students, Michael Christensen and Rebecca Laird, have taken his famous course in spiritual direction and supplemented it with his unpublished writings to create the definitive series on Nouwen’s thoughts on the Christian life. The first book in the series, Spiritual Direction, introduced readers to the core concepts of Nouwen’s approach to the spiritual life. Book two, Spiritual Formation, showcases Nouwen’s life-long effort to re-construct the five classical stages of spiritual development as movements in the journey of faith. The five classical stages are these: 1. Awakening (our desire) 2. Purgation (purifying our passions) 3. Illumination (of God) 4. Dark Night (of the Soul) 5. Unification (with God) Readings, stories, questions for personal reflection, and guided journal inquiry as articulated by Nouwen will provide readers with an experience in spiritual formation with the well-known author, priest, and guide. The third and final book in the series, Spiritual Discernment, is planned to release in 2012 .

LTRP Note: In 2002, when the first edition of A Time of Departing by Ray Yungen was released, Lighthouse Trails sent a copy of the book to Rick Warren, hoping to warn him of this  mystical spirituality that was fast moving into the evangelical church via Richard Foster and other contemplative pioneers. Rick Warren sent LT a personal note thanking us for the book saying, “I agree this is a hot topic!” Little did we know at the time that Rick Warren was fully aware of the contemplative prayer  (spiritual formation) movement already- years before The Purpose Driven Life was released (same month that A Time of Departing was released), in Rick Warren’s first book, The Purpose Driven Church, Warren said that the spiritual formation movement (ala Richard Foster and Dallas Willard) was a “valid message for the church” and has “given the body of Christ a wake up call” (PDC, p. 127). From the time A Time of Departingwas first released (2002) until its second edition  four years later, a lot has come to the surface, so much so that the 2nd edition of Yungen’s book carries an entire chapter on Rick Warren’s promotion of contemplative spirituality. In fact, Rick Warren is one of the most influential and powerful proponents of the contemplative prayer movement (as well as the emerging church movement) on the scene today.  The article below reminds us of this and why it should not be so. Keep in mind that Richard Foster is not the only contemplative figure whom Rick Warren  promotes. There are many: Henri Nouwen, Gary Thomas, Tricia Rhodes, Adele Calhoun, Leonard Sweet, and Mark Driscoll – just to name a few.

by Christine Pack
Sola Sisters

Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church website features two books by Quaker and mystic Richard Foster, today’s leading proponent of something known as “Spiritual Disciplines” or “Spiritual Formation.”  Also promoted are several other books focusing on the Spiritual Disciplines, which teach a practice that is nothing more than a “Christianized” version of mantra meditation, a pagan practice borrowed from Hinduism and Buddhism.  In this pagan practice, a person will “empty” the mind employing some kind of device: rhythmic music, repeating a word or phrase, focusing on breathing, etc., in an attempt to connect to God.

But in today’s undiscerning church, this pagan practice has been flowing into churches because its proponents insist that this is a Christian practice and has been practiced by Christians for centuries. After all, what could be wrong with something called “Spiritual Formation,” right? It sounds kind of Christian and churchy, doesn’t it? And we know there’s something about Christ being formed in us (Gal 4:19), so that has to be what this is talking about, right?

Wrong.  Spiritual Formation is a series of disciplines which supposedly aid in “spiritual development,” and which are generally thought to be Christian because these disciplines were formed centuries ago by monks in Roman Catholic monasteries. There’s just one problem here, but it’s a biggie: these Roman Catholic monks, who were known as the Desert Fathers, cloistered themselves in the Middle East and Egypt; and, because of their close proximity to eastern cultures, ended up being heavily influenced by paganism to the point of grafting pagan practices into their prayers, chiefly, mantra meditation.  So in essence, these “spiritual disciplines” that are part of today’s “Spiritual Formation” programs are classic, eastern occultic practices that have simply been “Christianized” with a sprinkling of the magic pixie dust of Christian terminology.  But make no mistake, these practices areoccultic. Click here to continue reading this article.

Related Information:

Saddleback Church IS a Contemplative Church

Merton & Nouwen: Sacrificing Truth for Mystical Experiences

by Ray Yungen

If you have read A Time of Departing, the book I wrote about contemplative spirituality, and are left wondering about your relationship with God, remember that knowing Jesus Christ is not merely religion or spirituality but is rather a personal relationship with Him.

Romans 10:2 speaks of those who have a “zeal for God but not according to knowledge.” Many contemplative writers describe a spiritual despondency they suffer before turning to mystical prayer as a remedy, and consequently they have an acute sense of spiritual failure that propels them into the waiting arms of the silence. In contrast, the Gospel presents a plan that is uniquely initiated by God.

Scripture clearly states that salvation depends entirely on the grace of God: “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast” (Ephesians 2: 8, 9). Furthermore, Christ’s death on the Cross for our sins, fully solidifies in our minds a tangible expression of the unearned and undeserved nature of our salvation. When Jesus said, “It is finished.” (John 19:30), He proclaimed in three words that our salvation depends entirely on the finished work of Christ on the Cross.

Let me therefore caution you in following any teaching that suggests that Christ’s work was incomplete or unnecessary, or that there are other paths to God. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” (John 14:6).

Christianity is uniquely different from all religions in that it does not contain the erroneous premise that man is basically good (or divine) and consequently can earn his way to Heaven.

If you have never found the peace of knowing Christ, I urge you to read the first five chapters of the book of Romans and allow the Holy Spirit to draw you to what is being said and offered. The only prerequisite is to recognize your inability as a sinner to save yourself. Then, in simple faith, tell God you are now trusting Christ, and Him alone, to be your Lord and Savior.

Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. (Romans 5:1-2) (excerpt from A Time of Departing - if you have not read this book and cannot afford to buy a copy, please let us know, and we will send you one  (for international: if you can pay for postage, we can send you one) – it is vital to understand why contemplative spirituality (i.e., spiritual formation) is a spiritual belief system that is contrary to Scripture and the Gospel and yet is rapidly being infused into countless evangelical churches, universities and colleges, seminaries, youth organizations, and ministries.)